


Sahlo

by strawberrykiwicaprisun



Category: Trench - Twenty One Pilots (Album), Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Angst, Depictions of Death, Depictions of injury, Depictions of violence but nothing too graphic, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mental Instability, Peril, TOPFL Halloween Challenge, TOPFL Halloween Challenge 2019, Trench Fic, but i wanted to be safe and warn everyone accordingly, mentions of animal abuse, mentions of animal death, mentions of torture, the tags make it seem scarier than it really is, trench
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-16 13:38:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 25,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21037109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strawberrykiwicaprisun/pseuds/strawberrykiwicaprisun
Summary: He is worn and weak. The Bishops are always coming for him. Josh is there to save him every time.The one where Tyler has a soft spot for animals and gains a new friend while trying to survive in Trench.





	1. Chapter 1

Tyler is in Trench for nearly a year before the Bishops start coming after him again.

It’s not a blatant chase. The Bishops send others to do their bidding. To locate him.

They find him one day while he’s exploring. He doesn’t realize that he’s been found at first. The Watchers. They toy with him. Make him doubt his sanity.

It starts with weird noises.

The noises never appear while he’s in the camp, but when he’s farther away from safety, they somehow always find him.

It’s noises that, at first, can be explained away as just sounds of Trench. It’s an eerie place to begin with. Tyler just excuses the noises on the fact that he’s gotten too comfortable being in their ray of sunshine that is the Bandito camp.

But the sounds keep getting weirder. Sounds that don’t belong in Trench. The rattling of chains, the sound of glass shattering, the harsh scraping of metal.

Tyler looks to his fellow Banditos when he hears the noises, to make sure they hear them too. He can see the fear in their eyes. He knows they know. They’re coming for him again.

Still, they keep going out. The people need supplies. Gathering is supposed to be one of the safer jobs.

Not anymore.

Tyler doesn’t tell Josh. Mark keeps giving him dirty looks for keeping it from Josh but doesn’t tell on him.

It get’s worse.

They return to camp early the day that the breathing starts. A heavy breathing that no matter where Tyler turns it feels like whoever is making the noise is standing right behind him. It makes the hairs on the back of his neck raise and shivers go down his spine.

They all trek a little faster than usual, taking the long way home, hoping they lose whoever or whatever is following them. They don’t want to lead it back to camp.

Tyler resigns himself to telling Josh about the noises when he gets back. He waited to do so because he knew he’d be held in camp for safety and barred from going on raids or supply runs or even exploring while Josh lead a mission to take care of the problem. But today, he knows it’s the right thing to do.

They’ve taken care of Watchers before. They’ve taken care of Trackers before. They’ve taken care of traitorous people of Dema that betrayed their trust and reported back to the city before. He’s not worried about that. He’s worried about the Bishops. If a Bishop comes after him it’s over.

The Bishops never chase after him outright. They always send someone else first to weaken him, before snatching him while he’s down.

Last time it was a Watcher. A revered member of Dema that wears a terrifying mask in the shape of a vulture’s skull.

They scare him enough to corner him and will chase him to the ends of Trench. They never seem to run out of stamina or sleep or eat. They will scream and laugh as they run after him until he collapses out of exhaustion and a Bishop comes to collect him.

The fifth and last time he was taken to the city he made it almost four days leading the Watcher away from camp. The last thing he saw before he fell unconscious was the sunrise of the fourth day. He’s glad he managed to remember the way the sun looked breaching the horizon of the cliffs surrounding Trench, before the hoofbeats behind him rendered him paralyzed.

Josh saved him then. He’s only become stronger since the last time he got taken. He’s doesn’t get as scared as easily now.

After the last time, the Banditos figured out how to take care of the Watchers.

The Watchers can’t touch him. Probably aren’t allowed to. The Banditos have traps set up all around the woods of Trench now. He has to ignore every bone in his body telling him to run. He just has to walk slowly. Pretend he doesn’t know they’re following him and lead them into the traps.

He’s fairly certain they can’t see through their plague masks. They can see through sound, and chase Tyler’s footsteps. He’s light footed and is good at sneaking in and out of Dema. But the Watchers must have heightened hearing in compensation for their lack of sight. They hear him. They always hear him.

They can’t hear what doesn’t move though. He leads them into bear traps and pits in the ground. When they are stuck, Tyler can take his knife and stop them for good.

The Banditos drag the Watchers bodies to the beginning of Trench and burn them for the city and the Bishops to see.

He’s no stranger to the Bishops pets either. Those are usually what gets sent after him first. The Trackers.

The Bishops are sick. They take pleasure in stealing animals from Trench and brainwashing them to do their dirty work. They train the animals to be mean and vicious, and to alert the Watchers when they’ve found somebody. They force feed the animals neon so their eyes glow and instill fear in the Banditos at night when they look out from camp and can see pairs of glowing eyes staring back at them.

Tyler has seen all kinds of animals as Trackers. He always despises having to kill them. Usually through tears and words of sorrow as he snaps their necks. He knows it isn’t the animals fault. But it’s their necks or his.

The last time he let a Tracker go it nearly got him killed. It was a rabbit. A fuzzy little white bunny rabbit that he came across while hunting. It was lying in the leaves, it’s back foot caught in a Watcher trap. It’s fur matted with blood and it’s glowing eyes so wide and panicked. He was so close he could see it’s pupil had dilated so much nearly distinguishing the glow of its iris. It’s chest was rising and falling rapidly. Tyler felt sorry for it and released it, instead of killing it.

It came back not four hours later, Tyler was still hunting in the same woods. He turned to see the rabbit behind him. It still had a bloody foot but it wasn’t limping, it was sprinting towards him, leading a dog behind it. He thought the rabbit was coming back to him for help. He knelt down to save it. The rabbit stopped before him. The dog ignored the rabbit in favor of jumping and wrapping its jaw around Tyler’s neck.

He screamed in time for another Bandito to notch an arrow and shoot the animal straight through its skull. He never saw the rabbit again after it’s betrayal.

Tyler had bloody teethmarks and bruises on his neck for the following weeks after the attack and he would catch Josh staring at the marks with a look of fear, eyes shiny with unshed tears.

The animals were smart to trick him. He doesn’t hesitate in killing them anymore, but he still feels remorse.

The Banditos bond with the animals of Trench runs deep. The animals provide food for them and in return the Banditos will one day provide their bodies for food.

But beyond that, the people and the animals have a great companionship. The animals have learned that the Banditos will help their sick or hurt, and will bring gifts in return. Usually something small.

The foxes gift them twigs for fire. The birds will bring them seeds that are hard to find for planting in the garden, the deer will bring their old antlers— the ones that fall off when they grow into adulthood, for the Banditos to fashion tools from. The vultures always bring animal bone for them to make weapons out of.

The animals are welcome in the camp. A few of the Banditos have adopted animals that are unable to fend for themselves in Trench after being hurt. They train the animals to help alert the Banditos of danger nearby, and bring them along for safety while their outside of the camp. When an animal is officially inducted as a Bandito, they fashion it with a yellow collar or bandanna, to distinguish who is who while outside the camp.

Except for one animal in particular named Leo. It was a large python that belonged to a Bandito named Brad. You can’t put a collar on a snake. But Brad does let some of the younger ones paint yellow in the patterns of Leo. The snake seems to enjoy it.

It’s almost sundown when the group finally makes it back to camp. Tyler takes his time putting his gear away, trying to think of what he’s going to say to Josh.

Mark sees him dilly-dallying and shoves him towards Josh’s tent and crosses his arms. Tyler can see the fear in Mark’s eyes too.

Tyler has a lump in his throat.

He unties Josh’s tent without knocking and sees Josh napping. He’s taken off his green hoodie in favor of wrapping himself up in the warm blankets. His cheeks are tinted pink and his bottom half is wrapped under thin blankets. He’s on his stomach, his arms under the pillow while his face is smashed into it. Tyler feels bad for having to wake him up. He looks too peaceful. It’s rare to get a deep sleep in Trench. Too quiet.

Tyler ties the tent back up behind him and sits down to peal off his shoes and a few layers before laying down beside Josh, pulling the covers over his own legs.

He presses his freezing hands to Josh’s too warm cheeks and calls his name softly.

“Josh.”

Josh doesn’t stir. Tyler tries again, nudging his arm.

“Josh.”

“Hmm?” Josh doesn’t open his eyes but reaches out blindly to throw an arm over Tyler.

“Josh I have to tell you something.”

“Nap first.” Josh mumbled into his pillow.

Tyler is starting to get anxious.

“Josh something happened while I was out.”

Josh is silent for a moment and Tyler thinks he fell back asleep.

He opens his mouth to wake him back up but stops when Josh opens his eyes, rolls to his side and tugs Tyler to chest with surprising strength for just waking up.

“Okay. Now you can tell me.” Josh says.

Tyler sticks his cold fingers under Josh’s warm shirt and presses his palms flat against Josh’s back.

“There was something trying to scare me in the woods today.”

Josh doesn’t say anything but tightens his grip on Tyler.

“It started two weeks ago. I thought it was just Trench at first. But we heard it breathing today. It didn’t come after us, it just wanted us to know it was watching. It’s happening again, Josh.” Tyler’s voice cracked as he said Josh’s name, the thought of getting dragged back to Dema suddenly all too real in his mind.

Josh sighs heavily.

“We won’t let it happen, Tyler.” Josh whispers. “We’re prepared this time. Whatever it was we’ll catch it and stop it.” Josh sounds like he wants to believe the words coming out of his mouth, but doesn’t. It stings a little.

“We gotta put together a group. Set you up as bait.” Josh swallows harshly as he says it.

“We can go as soon as tomorrow.” Tyler says. “Want this to be over with.”

Josh nods.

They’re both thinking it, but neither of them mention out loud that Dema can send an endless amount of Watchers and Trackers after him. Even if they kill this one. Eventually the Banditos will slip up. They don’t mention it, but both of them know it’s a long shot that the Bishops will leave him alone now that they know relatively where in Trench he his. They don’t know where the camp is yet, which gives them the advantage. But not for long. Which is why they have to act fast.

But for now, they can enjoy each other’s warmth and comfort in the safety of camp.


	2. Chapter 2

It ends up being a Watcher.

A group of them, including Josh leave for the woods first, setting themselves up in the trees to make sure that, if the plan goes wrong they can jump down and confuse the Watcher with all of the footsteps so it doesn’t know which one is Tyler.

“See you in a few hours.” Josh rests his forehead against Tyler’s as Josh’s group gets ready to leave. They pointedly look away from the two leaders to give them space.

“Watch our for wasp nests.” Tyler teases lightly.

Josh gives a smile but there’s tension behind it.

Tyler leaves with a smaller group a few hours later. Just him and two others. He pats Leo the snake on the head before he leaves.

When they make it to the forest he can’t see any Banditos in the trees which is a good sign. They’re good hiders. It makes him feel safer knowing they’re watching him as he goes about gathering berries and waiting for the thing to find him.

The Watcher was getting bold. He could hear the breathing around him not an hour into his trek. It didn’t come close though.

Until Tyler was knelt down at a berry bush.

His blood runs cold and he has to force his heartbeat to slow down and force his limbs to continue moving like he didn’t hear the breathing coming from right beside him.

He doesn’t turn his head but his hands are trembling as the pointed tip of a beaked mask appears into his vision not even six inches in front of his face. It moves so slowly. He can’t see its body. It’s head pokes through the bushes from his direct right. He’s certain the thing can hear his pounding heart beat. It’s breathing sounds strained and crackly like it’s lungs are filled with smoke. It sounds like it’s hissing at him.

He stands on shaky legs, careful to not touch it. Turning his back on it is the most frightening thing he’s ever done. He forces himself to walk steadily and slowly as he makes his way towards the nearest trap.

It’s footsteps sound like it’s right behind him.

Tyler tries to ignore the warning signs inside his head that tell him to run. 300 feet until the trap.

The Watcher’s mask comes into his vision from over his shoulder. It’s that close behind him.

He makes a break for it. He couldn’t help it. Couldn’t stop even though he knew he wasn’t supposed to run. He was just so scared.

The Watcher’s screams are blood curdling. It sounds like it’s vocal cords are being singed with a hot brand.

Tyler grits his teeth hard to keep himself from screaming in terror as he runs. He feels like he’s going to shatter his own teeth.

Just 50 feet and he can see the trap in the leaves. His lungs are on fire. He throws himself into a leap.

The Watcher doesn’t have time to jump and falls through a pit trap. The barbed snares and claw traps catch it when it lands with a thud at the bottom of the pit and screams again.

Tyler sees the Banditos jumping down from the trees and Josh gets to him first. He grabs Tyler and pulls him to his chest and Tyler can hear his heartbeat beating as fast as his own.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to run, I couldn’t control it I was terrified I’m sorry.” Tyler apologizes profusely to the rest of the people but Josh shushes him.

“You did great we got him, it’s okay. Don’t apologize it would’ve been impossible for any of us not to run as soon as we saw him you were so strong.” Josh says all in one breath.

Over Josh’s shoulder Tyler can see the group standing around the hole and notching arrows and aiming.

“Fire!” One of them calls. Twenty one arrows meet their mark. The screaming stops.

They drag the body out of the pit and leave it burning at the entrance of Trench.

The Banditos are left alone for now.

They do several training runs with members of the camp against Watchers.

With the success of Tyler’s escape from the Watcher following him, comes a wary sort of courage growing in the people of the camp. Now that they know the Watchers can be outsmarted, there’s a sense of relief when people leave the camp for supplies.

But they’re never too courageous or bold. There are always Trackers scouring the cliffs, tundra, and woods of Trench.

After they kill the Watcher, the attacks only get worse. People are terrified to leave the safety of camp.

At night it seems like thousands of glowing eyes from Trackers are watching their every move from just outside the perimeter.

The eyes move slowly around the edge, stalking their prey. They circle the camp from sundown to sunrise.

Josh orders for more fires to be set up around the perimeter.

“We’ve got to start fighting back or eventually they’re going to get bold enough to get into camp.” Josh warns the Banditos on the second week since the attack.

They’re all gathered around him as he makes his announcement in the center of the camp.

“Fight back how?” Michael asks.

“We’ve got arrows. Aim for the glowing eyes.” Josh puts. “Wrap your arrows in cloth and soak it with alcohol, light them on fire before you shoot. It’ll keep them at bay even if you miss.”

He assigns a team of Banditos to stand closer to the perimeter and wait for sundown with their bows in hand.

Mark is the one that gives the signal when the eyes start to appear once the sun disappears behind the horizon.

They’ve got several good marksman’s in their ranks. Many of the Trackers are killed, but it’s hard to tell because their eyes glow even in death.

What they didn’t account for, is the Trackers are always the ones to alert the Watchers.

They didn’t realize there were Watchers stalking the woods with the Trackers. Once the animals started falling, the Watchers were alerted and the screams started.

A hush and a chill came over the camp when they realized the Watchers had been there stalking them too the entire time and none of them had seen them.

They couldn’t come into the camp. Not without a Bishop. They didn’t have the power to do so. But their screams did what they were meant to do anyway. The whole camp was shaken up. More and more Banditos missed their shots as glimpses of the Watchers flickered into view from the light of their flaming arrows.

The Watcher’s beaked shadows cast over the snowy earth.

The Banditos did manage to drive off the Trackers with their arrows but the Watchers couldn’t see the light so they weren’t afraid of it. They screamed until the sky started to lighten.

None of the Banditos had been able to get any sleep. Trench was normally a silent place. They weren’t used to the loud cries coming from outside the perimeter.

There must’ve been a hundred Tracker bodies to clean up that day. It was harder to burn them all once they had managed to gather them into a pile at the entrance of Trench. But once the fire was lit, Josh could see the smoke rising for hours. The city would surely see it. It was a big message.

They wouldn’t go down without a fight.

After that night they were all worn. But they were left alone for now. They were able to go outside the safety of camp again to hunt and gather. They held off on going to the city to rescue people until their supplies were in surplus, just in case though.

It was over a month later when it escalates.

Josh had finally let Tyler off of camp arrest and let him go hunting for food with a few others.

“Come back to me.” Josh always says before he leaves camp.

It was only his third time going out of the camp boundaries since the Watcher incident. Tyler curses himself for being so unlucky.

They’re hunting game in the woods upstream.

Tyler hears a twig snap and whips around to face the Banditos first.

There’s a growling noise coming from in between him and the rest of the group. He’s cut off.

The only part of the animal they can see are it’s eyes, glowing through the shrubbery. It’s low to the ground but it’s growling suggests it’s something big, getting low and waiting to pounce.

He looks back up the the Banditos and he can see their scared faces.

It’s eyes don’t glow nearly as brightly as the usual Trackers. It must’ve been out here for a while stalking, the Bishops haven’t forced neon into its gullet in a while.

It’s eyes were fixed on the group of Banditos. It’s best chance at snagging a meal was going after the group.

If Tyler didn’t look hard enough he could imagine it was just a regular angry animal. It’s brown eyes were starting to meld through the cloudy neon glow.

Tyler stood completely still as he tried to figure out his best course of action.

The Tracker was in between him and the group. He couldn’t run towards them. Even if he did, he had no idea if he could outrun it.

He couldn’t turn behind him. That way lead back to camp. He couldn’t let the animal know where they were and tell the Bishops.

There was a cliff to just to his left. Maybe a 20 foot drop into the river below.

Tyler told Josh he was sorry in his thoughts before he made his decision.

“RUN!” He yelled.

The animal whipped to turn to him and moved to pounce on him for startling its meal.

He made a break for the cliff. The thing was fast. It was right on his heels and he didn’t have any time to regret his decision as he jumped.

He hit the rushing water hard. He was thrown under the water and he panicked, not knowing which way was the surface.

When he surged up and finally was able to take a huge gulp of air and orient himself in the crashing waves, he looked up to see what was chasing him.

Surely he must’ve hit his head.

There was no way there was a cheetah in Trench.


	3. Chapter 3

Josh is sewing up a hole in his hoodie when he hears the commotion coming from the center of camp.

He makes his way over quickly to see the hunting group all talking over each other to the other people in the camp.

“What’s going on?” He yells over all of them and they all shut up.

Josh points to a guy named Michael.

“Speak up.” He says sternly.

Michael swallows before launching into an explanation.

“There was a Tracker. It cut Tyler off from the rest of us. He created a distraction and ran so we could get away. It didn’t follow us but Josh, it was a cheetah!” Michael exclaimed.

Josh looked and saw Tyler wasn’t with them and willed himself to control his emotions for the time being.

“A cheetah?” He doesn’t know if he heard that right.

“Yeah, it looked weird too. Like it had been in Trench for too long. It wasn’t all gaunt and boney like all the Trackers are. It looked healthy. And it’s eyes were barely glowing. It hadn’t been back to Dema in a while to be fed.”

Josh furrowed his brow as he tried to process this information. There was a rogue fucking cheetah in Trench. He’d never heard of the city using big cats. They didn’t naturally live in Trench.

Tyler.

Mark could see Josh was on the verge of a panic attack thinking about Tyler and stepped in.

“Thank you, Michael, we are glad you’re safe.” Mark said.

“The whole camp is on lockdown, nobody leaves, double the bodies for perimeter watch. Everyone carries a weapon.” Josh announced.

The camp sprung into action to follow his orders. Mark grabbed Josh’s elbow and lead him to the nearest tent.

Josh was vacantly staring at nothing.

“Josh you can’t slip under we have to organize a search for Tyler.” Mark shook him a little.

“We can’t. It’s a cheetah, Mark. None of us could outrun it. It would be too dangerous for us to just go wandering in hopes of finding him.” Josh hated himself as he said it. But it was true.

Mark looked like he wanted to protest but knew that Josh was ultimately right.

“So we’re just supposed to wait?” Mark asked.

“I- I don’t know Mark, he’s gone I didn’t prepare myself for-”

“Hey.” Mark cut him off and placed his hands on his shoulders.

“We’ll cross that bridge later. It hasn’t come to that. He’s smart. He’s a great strategist. He’s sneaky. If anybody could get away it’s him.”

Josh hesitated.

“C’mon Josh you gotta step up for your people. They look to you for guidance.”

Josh fears if he speaks he’ll break down, so he steps outside and steps up instead. He pulls his bandana around his face so everyone knows not to talk to him.

He takes first shift for perimeter watch and walks circles around the outside of camp for hours.

Josh knows second shift has already passed and third shift is starting but he can’t make himself stop.

When he’s stressed, his body needs to move. If his body isn’t working then his brain turns on and thinks too much.

His hand clutches tighter around the knife in his pocket.

He keeps his eyes strained on the farthest horizon until they water and then he keeps moving.

Nightfall comes and goes and he finally makes himself get food. He knows he should sleep as well but it’s pointless. He knows he won’t fall asleep. Not when Tyler is missing.

He gets a bowl of warm stew and chews with his eyes closed. It’s the most rest he will get.

Those months where Tyler was missing the year previous, Josh doesn’t think he slept but an hour every other day. He refuses to let himself think about Tyler being back in the city.

It starts thundering overhead as the night turns to morning. Trench has gotten cold overnight.

The pouring rain doesn’t help.

Josh paroles the camps edge for the rest of the night with a torch in hand.

Dawn is approaching and the world is getting steadily lighter but it’s still shrouded in darkness from the thunderstorm.

It feels like Trench is mourning too.

“Josh!” A voice calls from behind him. It’s another Bandito.

“There’s a body in the river!” The voice exclaims.

Josh sprints to meet up with them and into the camp center. Mark is waiting for him with his hoodie in hand for Josh to take, Mark had finished sewing up the holes.

Josh nods in thanks before running to catch up with the others who are hurrying to the river that runs by their camp.

He gets to the cliffs edge and can’t tell if the body is moving or it’s just the waves that’s pushing it along.

The body is wearing Tyler’s green jacket with the yellow tape on the shoulders.

“It’s Tyler!” One of them yells.

“Help me!” Josh says to anybody around him and dives headfirst into the river and starts swimming. The rush of the river slows him down but he manages to snag the back of Tyler’s jacket.

Another Bandito joins him and grabs Tyler’s other side as they kick as hard as they can to make it to shore.

Josh keeps getting choked by the pouring rain splattering onto the river.

They make it to the river bank and Josh hauls Tyler onto the rocks. He crawls up and rolls Tyler over.

His lips are blue. He isn’t shivering. But his eyes are open and moving just barely.

“He’s alive!” Josh yells. “Start a fire in camp!”

He presses his hands over Tyler’s chest and starts pushing. He takes a deep breathe and presses his lips to Tyler’s and breathes into Tyler before pulling back and repeating the process until Tyler is sputtering. Josh rolls him over and Tyler coughs up a fair amount of water but he still isn’t awake.

Josh stands and picks Tyler up and runs as fast as he can back to camp.

The others are running faster without having to carry somebody.

With it raining so hard they’ll have to set up a fire in a tent so it doesn’t go out. It’s riskier and creates more smoke but this is more important.

“Wake up, Tyler, wake up!” He says as he runs.

Tyler’s head is lolled back. It’s a bad sign that he isn’t shivering anymore.

Mark and Brad meet him at the edge of camp and show him to the fire tent.

He eyes the smoke coming out of the top warily but pushes inside. It’s warm, but not too hot because the fire was just started.

There are two bedrolls in the tent. He sets Tyler on the one the furthest away from the fire. He knows his body needs to warm up slowly.

Brad comes in with a thermos of stew, a canteen of water and dry clothes for the both of them. Their medic comes in to evaluate Tyler. Josh is thankful for them.

He starts stripping Tyler out of his wet clothes but leaves him in his undergarment for privacy sake. Josh turns Tyler over to face the fire.

“Josh, I need to help him.” The medic says gently.

Josh nods and steps out of the tent and out of the way. He’s instantly soaked again and suddenly feels like he’s going to pass out.

He realizes he’s having a panic attack. He wishes somebody would stop and help him but they’re all busy running around doing what they need to do while he’s stuck in place wishing he could just scream.

Josh feels like he stands there for an hour before the medic reemerges from the tent to pat him on the shoulder. Josh jerks back to reality and faces her.

“He’s stable. He’ll make it. I gave him a few boosters. He’s mostly just worse for wear, he isn’t hurt. Keep and eye on his temperature. Don’t let him get too hot. When he wakes up he’s gonna be sore. He should be up within the hour. If he’s not, come get me.” She says.

“Thank you.” He finally finds his voice and places a hand on her shoulder.

“I’ll tell the camp not to bother you. They can see him when he’s well.” She gives him a remorseful smile.

Josh nods and steps back into the tent. The fire is more just burning embers now. It creates less smoke and will warm Tyler up more slowly.

Josh changes into a pair of dry clothes that Brad left for him and settles himself behind Tyler so as to not block the warmth of the fire. He props his head on his hand so he can look down at him. Tyler’s lips are slowly returning to their natural rose color but he’s still so pale and blue.

Josh feels for Tyler’s hands. They’re still freezing. Josh wraps them in the warmth of his own and lets his tears fall.

He brushes Tyler’s hair back from his forehead. It’s the silent type of crying.

“Josh.” Brad calls from outside the tent, he doesn’t come in but there’s urgency in his voice.

“There’s somebody in Trench, we need you.”

“Coming.” Josh calls back. He pulls a yellow flower out of his pocket. He doesn’t know how he knew that it would be there. He picks up Tyler’s limp hand and places the flower in it, curls his fingers over the stem and moves to join Brad.

The kid in Trench doesn’t make it out.

It’s another young one. Josh orders the Banditos to line the cliffs edge and throw the petals down on him, but the Bishop grabs him by his jacket hood before the first petal can even reach the ground.

The trek back to camp is silent in defeat. They’ll come for him in the city. When it’s time, and when he’s ready. Until then, they can only hope.

Josh is struck with fear when he gets back to the fire tent and sees it empty.

He whirls around to call for help and nearly jumps out of his skin when Tyler is right behind him with a worn smile on his face.

“You weren’t there when I woke up.” Tyler’s voice isn’t accusatory but a little hurt.

“There was a kid in Trench-“ Josh went to defend himself but realized he didn’t really need to and Tyler was just messing with him.

Josh looks around to see all the Banditos around them are too busy doing their chores to notice the two leaders so he leans in to Tyler’s space.

Tyler steps back before he can and holds up the yellow flower that Josh gave him in between their faces. He tucks it behind Josh’s ear.

“Thank you.” He whispers quietly before giving Josh a none too gentle shove into the tent behind him and following inside.

He lays down as Josh shoves a thermometer into his mouth.

“You feel alright?” Josh asks, smoothing Tyler’s fluffy hair off of his forehead.

Tyler nods.

“Tyler you’re very brave but don’t you dare do self sacrifice again. I know it’s selfish of me to say but I don’t think I could survive it if you got taken again.” Josh mock scolds. “I admire you so much. But I can’t lose you.”

Tyler lifts a shakey hand to remove the thermometer from his mouth.

“S’not selfish. The way to distract the Tracker just happened to be the same way for me to escape. We were lucky. Knew the river would go right by camp. Didn’t know it was gonna get freezing overnight.”

Josh huffs and sees Tyler’s temperature is still under normal.

He holds the canteen to Tyler’s lips to drink from. Tyler sips greedily.

“Careful.” Josh pulls back before Tyler can make himself sick from drinking too fast.

“They told you it was a cheetah?” Tyler croaks.

“Yeah, Michael told us. I don’t know what we are gonna do Tyler. We’ve got to kill it.” Josh feels a pang of guilt in his heart at Tyler’s sad expression.

“I’m sorry Josh.” Tyler’s brow furrows and his lip quivers. He’s starting to shiver.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. You did the right thing. Just scared me is all.” Josh feels the lump in his throat watching Tyler be so upset.

“Thought I was gonna get taken.” Tyler whispers.

Josh settles down behind Tyler. He rolls over to face Josh.

Josh breaks down. He’s inconsolable. He muffles his cries in Tyler’s chest, his body racked with sobs. Tyler presses himself into Josh’s warm body to try and absorb some of the warmth Josh seems to always radiate.

They spend the rest of the day in the tent.

Tyler soothes Josh as best he can. He finally wears himself out from crying and falls asleep sometime midday. It’s hard to tell what time it is because of the rain outside the tent. It’s quieted down to a more pitter patter than a thunderstorm.

He lets his fingertips run up and down Josh’s back as he takes in his exhausted appearance. The bags under his eyes are darker than usual and there is a permanent frown on his face through his sleep.

Tyler whimpers and holds him closer. Getting feeling to come back into your body was painful. It felt like hundreds of sharp pinpricks in every bone of your body. Tyler was too exhausted to move though.

His equilibrium was still thrown off from floating for so long. Every time he closes his eyes his body felt like his was rolling in the waves again and he’d feel sick.

When Josh wakes up a few hours later he helps Tyler sit up and gives him some stew. Tyler can barely lift the spoon to his mouth because his muscles feel so strained.

He refuses to let Josh feed him though. He needs to do this himself.

He does let Josh massage his aching muscles though after he finishes eating, and it makes him so relaxed he feels like he could sleep again.

Come nightfall Josh snuffs out the fire.

Tyler lets Josh dress him in thick clothing and they lay back down. They observe and take in each other as much as they can until their eyelids get too heavy and they shuffle closer.

Josh wraps a mountain of blankets around them and rests his forehead against Tyler’s. It’s his favorite place to be.

The sleep deeply that night.

Tomorrow Josh would go on a hunting party to kill the animal. Tyler would be forced to stay behind because he’s still weak. But for tonight they are safe. They are together. They are alive.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A very fluffy chapter for the people with a sweet tooth and because I'm a trash can for soft Josh/Tyler even though this is supposed to be a scary Halloween fic.

They don’t find the cheetah.

They search for 2 months leaving meat traps around the attack sight but they never even catch a glimpse of it.

Tyler starts to doubt his sanity. He knows he shouldn’t, he knows it’s a trick from Dema to get him to second guess himself. But the roots of doubt grow deep in his mind already.

It helps that the others saw it too. Makes everything seem more real. Some days he feels like he has to rely on other people to tell him what’s really there or not. That scares him.

Fear makes his mind see things.

Josh is there every step of the way with a warm hand on his shoulder, back, neck, arm, waist, for support. Reminding Tyler that he’s always there.

They’re preparing for a raid on the city in a week. Tyler is looking forward to it.

He’d been forced to stick close to the camp because of the attacks and he was getting stir crazy.

They’re short on several main supplies and it’s making people nervous.

Usually the Banditos carry out a raid once a month at least to gather supplies and rescue people who are awake. They missed last month with the Watchers and Trackers getting more bold.

Tyler and Josh were both going, it was a big mission. Josh was the leader and best at rescuing people from Dema, his bravery and strength made for comforting new people. Tyler was more strategic and sneaky, he would be the one leading a few Banditos to steal supplies.

Tyler was secretly happy about being assigned to supply run, because the storage in the city was in the same building as the Trackers were kept when they were captured. Mark berated him every time but Tyler loved releasing the animals into the streets so they could escape the city too. Usually the animals kept there weren’t trained enough to be mean, and wouldn’t turn on the Banditos.

It was an overwhelming and nerve racking mission when Tyler thought about it, nearly 20 of them would be going into the city and all of them needed to completely fill their bags to resupply the camp.

There was a ray of sunshine though. Josh had gone exploring one day and when he got back he met Tyler at the edge of camp and presented him with a yellow daisy.

“I have something to show you.” Josh smiles as Tyler’s spirits lifted and he delicately accepted the flower and placed it in his front pocket.

Josh lead Tyler to his horse waiting nearby.

“You mean like outside of camp?” Tyler tried to hide the excitement in his voice at the prospect of getting to leave.

Josh nodded and hoisted himself onto the horse first before holding his hand out and Tyler swung up behind him.

The brown and white horse—named Clancy, snorted a bit at the added weight but Josh just laughed and patted his mane before leading them away from the camp.

Tyler fit his arms snuggly around Josh’s middle and rested his cheek against Josh’s broad back, the soft green hoodie was comforting.

They rode for a long time. Longer than Tyler expected. He didn’t mind. He got some peaceful time just getting to be with Josh, which was rare.

“Look.” Josh said softly when they finally stopped. Tyler peered over Josh’s shoulder and gasped.

It was a clearing. A beautiful one, a field filled with yellow flowers and a small waterfall. Caves lined the mountainsides around them. The ground was soft under their boots as they jumped off Clancy.

“Josh it’s beautiful!” Tyler stared in awe as Josh threw a backpack over his shoulder and took Tyler’s hand in his.

“It gets better.” Josh seemed almost giddy as he lead Tyler up to the top of the waterfall. It wasn’t very tall but it was fresh. Closer the the glaciers.

They came to a couple pools of water that weren’t connected to the waterfall but the water in the pools still bubbled like it was flowing.

Tyler stuck his hand in the water and gasped again looking up to see Josh already stripping off his clothes. It was warm water. Really warm.

“Hot springs?” Tyler asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, you wanna?” Josh asked, nodding to the pools.

Tyler started laughing as he tripped while stripping out of his own clothes and joined Josh in just his underwear to slip into the water. It was only deep enough to go up to their shoulders and could probably only fit five people in it. There were a few smaller pooled scattered around them.

Tyler hummed happily as he submerged himself in the hot water and Josh mimicked him, humming in content.

“So what do you think?” Josh looked coy as he swam to Tyler and pulled him to rest against him.  
Tyler hooked his chin on Josh’s shoulder.

“It’s perfect. We should live here.” Tyler started. “All of us. Move the whole camp here. The mountains on either side provide safety. The only way to get here is through the mountain pass, and we could see whoever it was coming from miles away. It’s surrounded by trees.”

Josh didn’t respond.

“And it’s quiet.” Tyler ran shakey fingers through the wet curls on the back of Josh’s neck.

“Kind of want to be selfish and keep this place for our own. But you’re right. It is perfect.” Josh conceded and leaned into Tyler’s touch.

“The raid is in a week. It’d be a perfect distraction. Move everyone here while we create commotion in the city, and meet back with them here.”

Tyler wraps his legs around Josh’s waist as he watches him mull over the idea.

Josh sits back and lets his head rest on the rocks behind him.

“It’s a good idea.” He finally says, wrapping his arms around Tyler’s waist.

“We’ll have to bring the others here to approve first. Do some securing to the area. Make sure it actually is safe instead of just looking safe.” Josh worry’s his bottom lip with his teeth.

“Yeah, yeah, but for tonight it’s ours. Just ours.” Tyler leans in and captures Josh in a warm kiss.

“Yeah. Just for us.” Josh sighs into Tyler’s mouth and brings them flush together.

The mood is broken by Tyler’s stomach growling loudly.

Josh laughs wholeheartedly. Doesn’t try to quiet it down so as to not alert anything nearby. They feel safe enough here that it’s okay. That’s important.

Tyler grins sheepishly and cups his stomach.

“C’mon, I brought food.” Josh is still chuckling as he lifts Tyler out of the pool to sit on the edge and pulls himself out to grab his bag.

He whistles for Clancy to come stand nearby. Doesn’t want him wandering too far away.

Josh spreads out a blanket and starts pulling food from his bag and Tyler feels a flush throughout his body at the sight.

He feels kind of stupid just standing in his underwear watching Josh set this up for him.

“A picnic?” He squeaks in surprise.

“It’s not everyday we get the time and privacy to just be together.” Josh tries to shrug off his own burning cheeks.

“I love you.” Tyler says simply, plopping down on the blanket.

Josh grows even brighter red at that and just shakes his head. Tyler picks up a strawberry and holds it to Josh’s lips for him to bite into.

Its good. They get to watch the pink sunset disappear behind the mountains while they eat and laugh. Tyler lets Josh tuck yellow daisies into his hair that’s finally grown long enough to grab onto.

Tyler rests his head on Josh’s thighs and watches the orange clouds roll by, occasionally speaking up and pointing to a cloud that looks like something in particular.

Josh is fashioning something out of a yellow daisy in his hands. It looks intricate and despite Josh’s finesse with drumming, he’s seems to have a hard time getting his fingers to create what he wants to.

Tyler closes his eyes.

When Josh finally finishes he picks up Tyler's left hand in his own and holds it up so he can slip the thing onto Tyler’s ring finger. Tyler peaks open his eyes to see Josh has braided 3 daisy stems and fitted the flower in the center, to represent a jewel. It’s a ring. On his ring finger.

Josh doesn’t say anything but Tyler understands it’s his response from Tyler’s “I love you.” from earlier.

Careful not to smash the ring, Tyler yanks Josh down to lay with him and kisses him until they both can’t stop giggling and feel like they’re going to pass out from lack of air.

Tyler doesn’t mention it, but vows to make Josh one in return.

He feels an overwhelming sense of belonging. Not just to Josh but to what he’s doing here in Trench. It’s easy to feel hopeless here, unknowing what lies beyond. But he feels in his heart that he’s doing the right thing. That he’s in the right place, saving people from the city and learning to be happy again after leaving Dema is what he’s supposed to be doing.

It’s also moments like these that, while Tyler is eternally grateful, it reminds him that he can’t get comfortable in Trench. It’s too dangerous. But he’s allowed to have this. He deserves happiness even if it’s just for one night. It’s moments like these that make him feel stronger. Stable enough to fight against the city and the Bishops.

And if, on the ride home Tyler’s ass is sore and his thighs are still trembling from riding Josh in the soft clearing, flower petals falling from his hair onto Josh’s chest, in thanks to Josh for bringing him to this sanctuary, well that’s just a small price to pay.

They get back in the late hours of the night and Tyler goes to round up the people while Josh ties away Clancy for the night.

He steps up into the burning car in the center of camp as he announces the plan and listens to people’s opinions.

The Banditos are all for the idea, Mark and Brad assure that they will come to investigate the supposed paradise before any concrete decisions are made but it sounds like a good idea. A new place where the Watchers and Trackers don’t constantly stalk the camp, because they won’t know where they are. They’ll have to leave no trace.

The Banditos rest easier that night, though nobody would ever chance to say it out loud for fear of breaking the spell. It feels like the entire camp is waiting on baited breath for the night of the move.

It’ll be risky. But if it works out, it’ll be worth it.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings-Please Read For Your Own Safety
> 
> There are depictions of vultures eating an animal in this chapter. It's a little descriptive but nothing overly gross. Still, here is your warning.

Tyler is walking around the perimeter of the Bandito camp, feet crunching in the snow and breath coming out in huffs of fog from his mouth when he sees a figure off in the distance hopping towards him.

The raid is in two nights and Tyler shouldn’t really be this close to the tree line anyway, but he can’t help the pull in his heart that tells him to explore.

Tyler squints his eyes and relaxes when he sees it’s just his good friend Clifford, a vulture, coming towards him.

The people in the camp claimed Clifford was Tyler’s pet but that really wasn’t the case. Tyler hd saved him from the city, and Clifford was quite fond of him, but the vulture preferred the freedom of Trench.

He came and went throughout the camp from time to time, bringing Tyler strange gifts from the outside world, but unlike the other Banditos’ pets, he didn’t stay. He never rested in the camp or stayed for too long (though he’d never turn down a treat from Tyler’s hand when he stopped by).

Tyler enjoyed the vultures company. He had a personality that made Tyler smile.

It was sometime after his own last escape from Dema that when Tyler had gone into the city for a raid with the others, he had passed by the cages where the Bishops kept the animals they stole from Trench.

Tyler was fleeing the Bishops but he stopped by the bars when he saw the vultures head hung, it looked like it was crying. It’s wings were limp by its side and Tyler could see that the poor birds wings had been clipped jaggedly and roughly.

It trembled as he approached the cage with a heavy heart. He couldn’t leave the thing here. He could stand to see it turn into a monster.

He was able to wrench open the bars and scoop the bird up. For a moment, he was terrified that thing was tricking him and would peck him to death. He placed the bird on his shoulder. The vulture just gave a low cry and dug its talons into Tyler's backpack to hang on tightly, and Tyler understood that he knew Tyler was just trying to help it.

Josh had panicked, seeing the vulture on Tyler’s back when he returned to the camp at sunrise but Tyler convinced him that it just needed their help and Josh ended up growing warm for the raptor too.

Tyler named him and took great care of Clifford as he healed.

Clifford’s wings were too badly damaged for him to fly anymore but Tyler still encouraged the bird as best as he could.

He started by placing Clifford on top of one of the smaller cliffs and gave encouragements and bits of meat to convince Clifford to jump off and land in Tyler’s arms. Once Clifford got used to jumping off and getting the hang of floating down five feet, Tyler moved him to a higher cliff where Clifford would have to jump and float down 10 feet. And then when Clifford managed that they would move to an even bigger jump.

Tyler would catch him every time (even if the sight of a giant bird falling straight at him was kind of terrifying) and he would cheer and give Clifford a treat.

He knew Clifford couldn’t fly but if he could at least stretch out his wings and maybe get a few feet off the ground, Tyler felt safer knowing the vulture had a chance of getting away from something that might prey on the weakened bird.

They worked together until Clifford could successfully fly a few feet before crash landing, but Tyler was ecstatic and hugged and petted the bird out of happiness.

Because Clifford couldn’t use his wings very much, he was very expressive with his body. He would jump up and down when he wanted attention or was excited and would bow his head to thank somebody and would tap his beak and squawk to express anger or fear or to warn somebody that danger was near. He was a good bird. Tyler kind of wishes Clifford would come around more but he knew he was and independent bird, not a pet at heart.

So when Tyler saw Clifford hopping towards him on both feet with his wings out and hunched over his body to keep his balance, Tyler was overjoyed.

He met Clifford halfway and knelt down, holding his fist out.

“Hey Cliff, sorry I don’t have anything for you right now buddy.”

Clifford stabled himself before tucking his talons into a makeshift fist and bumping his foot to Tyler’s outstretched hand.

Clifford shook his head and jumped up and down and squawked loudly.

“What’s up?” Tyler asked standing up and putting his hands on his hips.

Clifford turned towards the tree line and looked back at Tyler before flapping his wings like he was motioning Tyler to follow.

“Okay, okay, I’m coming! What do you wanna show me?” Tyler chuckled following the birds strange hopping towards the trees.

He stopped when he was at the very edge of camp. Clifford took notice and squawked in indignation.

“I’m not supposed to be leaving camp it isn’t safe right now, can’t you bring it to me?” Tyler asked desperately. He didn’t want to disappoint his friend but he also didn’t want to scare the Banditos by leaving safety.

Clifford sharpened his beak on a rock on the ground and stomped his feet.

Tyler huffed and looked into the woods where Clifford was leading him. He could just barely see the figures of more vultures standing not 30 feet outside of camp.

“Okay, fine but any further than that and I have to stop.” Tyler told Clifford and the vulture nodded his head once like he understood, even if Tyler wasn’t really sure the vulture could understand him.

Surely a few feet outside the perimeter wouldn’t hurt right?

Still, Tyler hurried to the group of raptors, worried that one of them was hurt and Clifford was coming to him for help.

Clifford kept up the pace with Tyler despite having to hop.

Tyler gasped and fell back once he reached the group, crab walking back a few steps out of fear.

Clifford payed him no mind and stepped to greet his friends.

Tyler flipped to his hands and knees to gag and his body felt sick but he had nothing in his stomach to throw up.

The vultures were surrounding their fallen prey.

It was a cheetah. Frost bitten and unmoving.

They were pecking happily out of its open stomach, it’s mushy organs spilling out of the hole they had pecked. Despite the cheetah trying to kill him, he felt a pit of despair deep in his gut.

It’s eyes we’re still open but glassy.

It looked like the vultures had gone for the soft eyes first, but upon tasting the neon, had moved to its stomach instead. The little neon that was left spilled out of the cheetah's eyes like glowing tears.

Tyler heaved again as he watched Clifford’s friends wedge their beaks in between the cheetahs exposed ribs and rip flesh out from underneath them.

Clifford hopped over to him and rested his wing on Tyler’s back as if to  
console him.

“I know your friends couldn’t have managed to kill him, but you were just trying to show me that it was dead and couldn’t come after me anymore, thanks Cliff.” Tyler patted Clifford’s foot and stood up.

“Enjoy your meal.” Tyler turned to leave the gorey scene in front of him but Clifford squawked and grabbed his pant leg with his beak.

“What?” Tyler asked, still keeping his eyes downcast from the dead animal.

Clifford kept his beak around Tyler’s pant leg and dragged him closer to the body of the cheetah.

“No, Clifford I don’t want any thanks.” Tyler tried desperately. He just wanted to leave but Clifford wouldn’t let him.

The other vultures perked up to glare at him, daring him to try and take some of their meal.

Tyler held his hands up. Clifford flapped his wings to shoo the other vultures a few feet away so Tyler could step forward.

“Please don’t make me look at it.” Tyler clamped his eyes shut.

Clifford gave a noise that sure sounded like a sigh before nipping at Tyler’s leg.

“Ow!” Tyler exclaimed rubbing his leg and opening his eyes to glare down at Clifford.

“What?” he asked angrily.

Tyler heard a little yip of protest as Clifford dragged a ball of fur from where it was hidden behind the carcass.

It was a cub.

The cheetah was a mom.

It had a baby.

A little crying cheetah that couldn’t have been more than a month old. Tyler could see it’s tiny teeth shining every time it opened its mouth to cry.

“Let go!” Tyler chastised Clifford and went to assess the tiny thing.

It was covered in its mother’s blood but otherwise looked unharmed. Tyler didn’t want to think about the possibility of it having brothers or sisters murdered.

“This is what you wanted me to see, you knew it needed help.” Tyler breathed,  
looking at Clifford.

The other vultures were starting to creep towards the body again and Tyler scooped up the cub and wrapped it in his jacket in defense. There was no way he was letting an innocent, defenseless animal get pecked to death even if it’s parent had tried to kill him.

“Thank you!” Tyler called to the vulture before he turned to sprint back to camp with the animal in his arms.

Clifford squawked a goodbye.

The cub cried and cried as he ran back and Tyler could feel his own cheeks were wet, knowing the creature had probably seen its mother die.

Tyler snuck back into the camp and brought the cub to one of the empty tents on the outskirts of the camp. He set it down on a towel.

“Stay there.” He told the animal pointlessly before he went outside and pulled a metal tub and filled it with water from the well quickly, hoping nobody would see him and his bloody clothes.

He managed to make it back into the tent and tie it up, setting the tub in the center of the floor and picking the cub up and placing it in the shallow water.

Tyler ripped off his bloody shirt and jacket and threw them into the corner of the tent before picking up the bar of soap and swirling it around the tub.

He slowly cupped his hands and gathered the water in them to pour over the baby cheetah and lathered it’s fur in soap, washing away the blood.

“Shh, shh. It’s alright. I’ve got you little one.” Tyler kept consoling the small thing. The bath seemed to calm it down enough that it stopped crying but Tyler still hadn’t. Hot tears still dripped off his chin as he focused on taking care of it.

“Tyler?” A voice called from outside the tent.

The flaps rattled like it was going to open.

“Don’t come in Mark!” Tyler exclaimed, wincing at how weak his voice sounded.

“Why aren’t you in your own tent? Why didn’t you tell anybody you were back we were worried!” Mark started questioning.

“Um. Okay you can come in as long as you promise not to scream or tell anyone.”

There was a pause before the tent opened and Mark stepped inside, inhaling sharply at the animal in the tub.

“Tyler.” Mark said dangerously quiet. “Is that a fucking-“ Tyler slapped a soapy hand over his mouth and Mark spluttered.

“What the fuck!” Mark scream whispered.

“I promise I’ll tell you everything but please just help me first.”

Mark looked skeptical.

“Please just trust me.” Tyler pleaded.

“What?” Mark scowled.

“First, tell everyone I’m back and fine, just say i’m sick or something. Second, can you get some milk for it?”

Mark’s eyes sharpened and if looks could kill Tyler would be dead.

“You want me to milk one of the wild cows, at night, when they’re most likely to kick the shit out of me for disturbing their sleep?”

“Please. I don’t know how long it’s gone without eating.” Tyler pleads and if Mark curses himself for being so weak against Tyler’s crying.

“Fine. But you’re telling Josh. Tonight. Or I will.” Mark warns before leaving the tent in search of the usually kind hearted cows that hang around the camp.

“You’re okay.” Tyler soothes the cub as it starts to cry again from getting no attention. He finishes cleaning it and gives a watery laugh when it gives a noise of protest from being removed from the warm bath.

He pokes his head out of the tent to make sure the coast is clear before stepping out to dump the tub of water.

He looks around again to make sure no one is looking as he steals a shirt off of a clothing line. Somebody’s gonna be pissed about that but Tyler can deal with it later. For now he needs a clean shirt and he can’t exactly leave the animal alone while he treks across camp to his own tent.

When Mark returns he holds a canteen triumphantly and helps Tyler gather the animal in the blanket from the tent to stop its shivering from the bath. He walks in front of Tyler to hide him as he’s carrying the animal to Tyler’s tent. Tyler is grateful for Mark as he diverts all attention elsewhere and the animal blessedly isn’t seen.

In Tyler’s tent, he and Mark both are a little confused on how to feed the cheetah.

“It’s old enough to know how to lap up water right? It’s got little teeth. Maybe it’ll just know how to drink the milk?” Mark suggests.

Tyler shrugs and pours the milk into a bowl and sets it down in front of the cub.

The cub sniffs in interest before stumbling and its whole face dips into the bowl accidentally.

Tyler and Mark can’t control their laughter as the cub licks its mouth, unbothered by its stumble.

“Well that’s one way for it to learn how to drink.” Mark laughs as the cheetah goes to the bowl again, this time lapping more politely.

“Would you get Josh for me?” Tyler asks after the cub has drank its fill and it’s eyes start to get heavier. Sleep is pulling at the baby and he wants Josh to meet it before it falls asleep.

Mark nods and Tyler hears quiet murmuring next door before Josh is suddenly ducking into Tyler’s tent, Mark following behind him.

Josh’s eyes go wide as he takes in Tyler cuddling the baby cheetah to his chest, it’s wrapped in a warm blanket.

“That’s not what I expected.” Josh confesses but doesn’t grow angry. Just sits down across from Tyler to explain. Mark sits beside him.

“Please don’t be mad at me for bringing it into camp. It’s just a baby.” Tyler starts.

“Clifford came to me while I was at perimeter and showed me where his friends were.... eating this little guys mother.” Mark and Josh don’t say anything.

“The cheetah that tried to attack us is dead.” Tyler words it differently hoping they understand.

“It’s dad might still be out there.” Mark warns.

Tyler glared at him but supposed he was right.

“Clifford brought me over to the cub, wanted me to take it so the other vultures didn’t kill it. I couldn’t leave it. It’s not a Tracker. It’s innocent.” Tyler mumbles the last part suddenly feeling shy.

“What killed it?” Josh sighed before reaching his hand out to scratch the animal under it’s chin.

“Dunno. Vultures were already eating it. Maybe it got sick?” Tyler offered.

“You said it looked healthy when it attacked you. You think maybe it went rogue and stopped going back to Dema to be fed? Broke the cycle?” Mark wondered aloud.

“But then that would mean there are other cheetahs out here. How else would it have gotten pregnant?” Tyler asked.

Josh spoke up again.

“I doubt there are others. Trench is too cold of a climate for cheetahs to survive. They naturally live in the Sahara and it snows more often than not here. I’m guessing it died because it didn’t know how to survive in Trench. Maybe Dema is experimenting with different animals? It might’ve been bred in Dema and they didn’t know before sending it out. Maybe it was just a mother’s intuition that it didn’t go back to the city to be fed so her cub wouldn’t be hurt by her captors.”

They were silent for a moment, watching as Tyler rocked the baby to sleep.

“Can I keep it?” Tyler asked hopefully. He knew if he really wanted to he wouldn’t have to ask for Josh’s permission, but he wanted to include Josh in the decision.

Josh sighed deeply. “Yeah, Ty, you can keep it. But it’s entirely your responsibility to take care of it and train it. If it turns on this camp you have to be the one to kill it.” Josh said sternly.

Tyler nodded rapidly. “I promise.”

“Also you have to be the one to tell the people that you have a pet. I may be the leader but this is your time to step up.”

Tyler nods again.

“Okay. I’m going to bed. You two sort the rest out. Good luck, Tyler.” Mark called smugly stepping out of the tent.

Josh takes the cubs paw with his fingers. The paw looks tiny in comparison to Josh’s hand.

“What are you gonna name it?” Josh asked softly. His thumb smoothed over the cheetahs tiny paw.

“How about Jason?”

“Jason sounds good. A fierce protector.” Josh smiles gently.

Tyler fits Jason with a yellow bandana around his neck. Jason scratches at it at first but Josh had to admit it did look cute.

Josh lays down on Tyler’s bed to go to sleep, Tyler however, stays sitting up, humming soft melodic tunes to baby Jason to sleep.

He falls asleep to the sound of Tyler’s voice.


	6. Chapter 6

“Tyler come on!” A Bandito yells from in front of him.

He was being chased by a Watcher in the city.

The raid had gone slightly wrong.

Tyler knew he shouldn’t have done it but his curiosity got the best of him. His group was grabbing as much as their bags could fill from the supply rooms when Tyler mentioned he was going by the animal cages in the next door warehouse. He had done it every time there was a raid. He never expected anything to be different.

It started off fine. He opened all the cages to set the animals free when he thought about Jason. His mother’s record would be somewhere in the same room. He just had to find it. He could find out where Jason’s mom had come from and where his dad was.

It was because it took him a little longer to find the file that the Watcher had spotted him.

The files were miraculously categorized by genus classification and there were only two folders filed under “Acinonyx”.

Tyler grabbed them both and ran to meet up with his group that was waiting for him.

He didn’t realize he had taken so long that the Watcher shifts had switched already and it’s patrolling route was right outside the supply warehouse gate.

He smacked into the Watcher.

It screamed.

He ran.

It’s screaming alerted other Watchers.

He ran quicker.

He flew through the gate to the next district where the other Banditos were waiting for him. They shut the gate in the nick of time as three Watchers slammed into the metal bars behind him. Their beaks poked through the bars. The gate rattled and strained as the Banditos struggled to hold in closed against the Watchers.

Tyler grabbed his knife and the front of a Watchers shirt and pulled it closer into the gate and stabbed as hard as he could up under the edge of its mask.

The Watcher fell silent and slipped to the ground at the other Watchers feet. Tyler did the same to the other two Watchers and finally the area was silent.

“You just trying to get killed for fun now?” A Bandito clapped Tyler on the shoulder and gave a worn smile.

“Won’t happen again.” He assured.

“Haven’t been on a raid in too long, I’m rusty.” Tyler admitted.

The Banditos admired his willingness to admit his faults and weaknesses. It’s why they followed him.

Tyler shouldered his own two duffel bags filled with supplies and they were able to thankfully able to sneak instead of run to the rendezvous point at the entrance to the tunnels.

Tyler gave one last look to the towers behind him as he exited Keons district and into Nills’.

He could swear he saw nine robed figures looking down at him from the place of worship.

He turned his back on them.

Josh and Tyler’s groups reunited at the end of the tunnels and the beginning of Trench.

Josh gave a little bow to him when they caught each other’s eyes. They weren’t exactly big on public displays of affection. That lets your guard down. It’s too dangerous to do so in Trench.

The other Banditos greet each other as well.

“I heard the Watcher screams from Reisdro’s district.” Josh whispered to him, muffled from under his bandana.

Tyler looked at his feet guiltily.

“What happened?” Josh asked as the groups moved to make their way home, navigating the cliffs.

Josh held his torch high and spoke softly. He normally didn’t talk much on raids. When his bandana was up around his face he was concentrating.

“I grabbed some files from the animal warehouse. I messed up. Didn’t even see the Watcher until I ran into it.” Tyler said with his head hung in shame.

“I’m not gonna reprimand you or anything, Ty. Just glad you’re safe.” Josh moved a little closer to  
him so their shoulders brushed as they walked back.

“On the bright side it probably created a great distraction for the rest of the camp. With our hold up they’re probably already set up in the new clearing and the Bishops have no idea.” Tyler scratches his neck.

A couple Banditos laugh loudly at that. It makes him feel better.

Tyler peers over at the new rescues from Dema. They’re all younger. Two boys and a girl, the oldest of which couldn’t have be over 14.

“They’re siblings.” Josh murmurs to him quiet enough so they won’t hear.

“They were the ones that created a distraction in our last raid so we could escape when one of our own betrayed us and told the Bishops we were coming. I swore to them I’d come back for them. They knocked over three vial fixtures in the place of worship and bathed the place in spilled neon. They’ve got good hearts. Willing to learn. Ready to help. Lost both their parents in the city when they were just children.” Josh fills Tyler in.

Tyler observes them as overtly as he can as they make their way home. He isn’t judging. Just silently calculating what they will be like. Josh doesn’t mind Tyler’s quietness, but it is unusual. Josh is usually the on to keep quiet while they’re out, but he says nothing.

The camp is pretty much completely set up when they get back at dawn.

It’s picturesque with the sunrise over the new camp in the beautiful valley clearing.

They rejoice as they meet back up with the rest in the new camp. The supplies are put away and they all join in the center to celebrate the new home and successful rescue and supply mission. The new rescues are a bit fearful but watch in awe as the Banditos gather to dance and sing.

The car that seems to follow Tyler wherever he lives is burning hotly in the center of camp. Tyler stands on it as the Banditos break out in song and dance around the fire.

Josh’s drums bounce off the mountains and sound so loud they resonate in Tyler’s chest as he performs. Even Clifford comes to visit and dances in the center of camp, bobbing his head and stomping.

Tyler remembers the first time he ever performed with Josh in the camp. It was the most exhilarating moment of his life.

The Banditos bond with music goes deeper than their bond with the animals of Trench. They use the music to communicate, to learn, to understand, to cope, to rejoice, to celebrate, to mourn and to survive. Tyler always hopes they play loud enough that the people in the city can hear them and wake up.

Before going back to their tent to rest Tyler makes Josh wait for him, saying he needs to take care of something first.

Josh watches idly by as Tyler scoops handfuls of flint and wets it with water to make a paste.

He suppresses a shiver that wants to make its way down his spine at the sight of Tyler’s hands covered in the black ashy substance. It reminds him too much of the times when he would catch glimpses of Tyler while he was still asleep in the city. Branded with the black marks for being a blasphemer.

Tyler pays no mind to this though, he crouches down and draws four symbols in the dirt with the flint.

Josh doesn’t know what they mean, but he recognizes them as the four symbols Tyler has tattooed on the side of his forearm. Tyler is acting like it’s very important so he doesn’t interrupt.

Tyler strikes a match and touches each symbol with them flame to light it. The symbols smolder and burn the dirt beneath them, and when they flint is all used up the symbols are etched into the ground.

“Okay. That’ll help.” Tyler says slapping his hands together to get rid of the excess black.

Josh nods like he understands what Tyler means. He doesn’t think Tyler would be able to tell him even if he asked. Tyler knows certain ways to protect the camp. Josh doesn’t question it.

They go to pick up Jason first. He wasn’t happy being left with another Bandito while Tyler went to the raid.

The Bandito handed Jason back to Tyler with a frown on her face and scratches on her arms. Tyler thanked her profusely and sheepishly. He’d have to train the little guy better. And send her an apology gift.

They retreat back to the tent, Jason cuddled into Tyler’s arms.

They each have their own tent but they rarely use Tyler’s anymore. Somewhere along the way Josh’s tent became their tent. He stops short before climbing into his (their) tent when he sees something hanging off Tyler’s own tent next to his.

“Hey.” He catches Tyler by the back of his shirt before he can duck into their space.

“What’s that?” Josh points to the red cloth handing from one of the poles of Tyler’s tent.

Tyler’s brow furrows and he stands to investigate and Josh follows.

The red material is hanging from a piece of fishing line, and the top of it is hooked onto a fish hook.

It’s a red balaclava.

“I thought you left this back in Slowtown because you didn’t need to wear the red one anymore.” Josh reaches out to finger the fabric but Tyler catches his wrist to prevent him from touching it.

Tyler hands Jason to Josh so he can grab it instead.

“I did. It’s not my mask, it’s my beanie.” Tyler’s jaw sets and he has fire in his eyes.

“They cut holes into my hat.” Tyler rips the offending fabric off the hook and shows Josh the jaggedly and hastily cut holes in his favorite hat.

“They’re just trying to antagonize me.” Tyler sneers and tosses the hat into the drum fire next to the tent.

“They’re letting us know that we can move anywhere and they’ll always know where we are.”

“But they don’t know you don’t sleep there anymore.” Josh says gently, holding Jason out for Tyler to take.

Tyler’s eyes soften at that and he accepts the sleeping cub, but doesn’t comment.

Josh goes over to yank the fishing line and hook off his tent and throw it into the fire too.

He vows to knit Tyler another one as he ushers them into their tent.

Once they are able to recuperate from the raid and rest up, they are able to lazily sit back and go over the files Tyler grabbed.

Josh lays on his stomach while Tyler lays on his side with his head propped up on his arm. Jason is cuddled into Tyler’s side.

“Hm look at this.” Tyler points to a document he’s reading.

“Experiment 100519. Female aged five. Failed. Experiment Terminated.”

“So the Bishops killed Jason’s mom? Why?” Josh’s brow furrows.

Tyler makes a noise of confusion.

“Hey it says here that the cheetah was bred on purpose. They knew Jason’s mom was pregnant. But they still let her track?” Josh frowns. He doesn’t understand.

“No they didn’t.” Tyler mumbled and reads from his document.

“Experiment escaped on 10moon 12. Watchers ordered to terminate on sight. Experiment 100619 captured and terminated while trying to escape.”

“So Jason’s mom and dad tried to escape together. But his dad didn’t even make it out of the city. They were killed because they couldn’t be brainwashed to comply to the Bishops.” Josh mused sadly.

Tyler pulled Jason closer to his chest and nuzzled into the fur on the top of his head.

“It says here Jason’s mom was pregnant with three female cubs.” Josh says looking at Tyler sadly.

“Guess they didn’t make it.” Tyler says with his eyes downcast and his throat closing up.

“Wait Tyler. It says she was only pregnant with girls. Do you know if Jason-“ Josh starts.

Tyler frowns and rolls into his back to pick Jason up by the armpits and hold him over his head.

“Huh. I uh guess I never really payed attention to that. I guess Jason is-” Tyler and Josh both burst out laughing.

“I’m still calling him Jason though.” Tyler says decidedly, setting down the cheetah on his chest.

It’s quiet as Tyler smoothes down the fur on Jason’s back and a tiny pur comes from Jason at the touch.

“At least we know now what happened. We’ll honor his parents with a flower bed hm?” Josh runs a warm hand down Tyler’s arm in comfort as he sees Tyler’s frown.

Jason licks Tyler’s hand with its tiny tongue and gives a loud yawn.

“I’ll do right by him.” Tyler says, letting Jason lay where he pleases in Tyler’s lap.

“He already seems like he’s taken to you.” Josh smiles and pats the top of the cheetah cubs head.

“I hope so.” Tyler worries.

“Don’t worry. You’ll be a great mother.” Josh teases and scratches Jason’s head.

“I’ll send him after you if you don’t quit it.” Tyler pokes Josh’s stomach and Josh barks out a laugh and jerks to cover his stomach from Tyler’s prodding fingers.

The Banditos have gained another companion to protect them and to care for. They’ll do right by him.


	7. Chapter 7

Josh is sleeping peacefully when he’s thrown awake by a sharp pain in his stomach. He gasps and tries to sit up but he’s held down by something on top of him.

His scream never leaves his throat when he blinks awake enough to see it’s just Jason kneading his stomach with his sharp claws. He’s standing heavily, directly on Josh’s stomach and purring happily.

Jason growls at Josh when he goes to remove the animal from his soft organs.

“Jason, please you’re gonna eviscerate me.” Josh groans.

Jason is a stubborn animal. He’s grown to only listen to Tyler, even though Tyler has tried his best to show Jason that Josh can be trusted.

It’s been over six months since Tyler had found Jason and there was still no luck.

Jason likes Josh. Likes to play with him and snuggle him and be fed by him, where he won’t let any other Bandito do that. But he refuses to let Josh tell him what to do. It’s kind of annoying. Tyler says it’s because Jason is almost a year old which means he’s in his teenage years. Josh just thinks Jason likes to be stubborn.

“Tyler.” Josh shakes Tyler awake.

“Hmm?”

“Your pet is trying to kill me.” He groans.

Tyler sits up and lights a candle at the head of their bedroll. He snickers when he sees Josh is trapped under Jason.

“Glad you find my disembowelment funny.” Josh croaks.

Tyler grabs Jason around his middle and rolls him to the other side of the tent.

“You know you aren’t allowed on the bed.” Tyler scolds Jason.

It could be the flickering light from the candle but Josh swears he sees Jason roll his eyes like an actual teenager.

“Thank you.” Josh says and looking down to asses the damage. When he lifts his shirt he can see claw marks beading with blood. He knows Jason was just kneading in happiness but the pricks hurt.

“Oh poor baby.” Tyler’s scratchy morning voice carries from beside Josh as he sits up to observe Josh’s wounded stomach. The marks aren’t deep at all but they’re still bubbling up with blood.

Tyler soaks a rag in alcohol and runs it over Josh’s stomach. Josh hisses at the sting.

Tyler runs a second wet rag just soaked in water to wash away the alcohol and the settles in between Josh’s legs to kiss every scratch as lovingly as he can.

“I’m sorry Joshie. You’ll be alright, baby.”

Josh knows Tyler is just trying to butter him up into forgiving Jason by calling him pet names.

It works.

They lay back down to go back to sleep and Tyler spoons Josh, giving him little kisses on the back of his neck in apology.

It soothes Josh back to sleep. Almost. Just as he’s about to go under again he feels a weight work its way in between him and Tyler and lay down, forcing Tyler and Josh away from each other. The added weight on top of the blankets pulls them taught and Josh thinks he’s gonna suffocate where the blankets pulls against his chest.

“Jason.” Josh groans. “Please.” He whines.

He can hear Tyler’s gentle giggling as the weight is picked up and Jason is moved it his own bed again.

It’s nearly instantaneous when Jason disobeys again, this time laying across their legs. Jason rests his head on Josh’s thigh. Josh scowls at his wide innocent eyes.

“I guess that’s fine.” Josh grumbles and moves back into Tyler so they can cuddle again.

When they wake up in the morning Jason has snuck his way under the covers with them. Josh sighs but doesn’t protest.

Jason is smart, loyal and strong. Tyler has been a good parent to him. He’s polite to the rest of the Banditos but doesn’t let them touch him. He isn’t unkind to the people, but they know now that he prefers kind words and offers of food to belly rubs and head scratches. Unless it’s Tyler or Josh. And very rarely Mark and Brad, though they’ve both come close to losing a couple of fingers when they’ve gone to pet Jason without him bumping his head against their hands in permission first.

They don’t make the same mistake twice.

Jason has made good friends with the rest of the animals in the camp though. He enjoys playing hide and seek with Leo the snake. He lets Clifford ride on his back when he comes to visit so the poor raptor doesn’t have to hop everywhere.

He’s especially good friends with a pet named Nigel. It’s a tiny swallow that a Bandito had saved when a forest fire had broken out in Trench. The birds wings were soaked with ash and unable to fly and the Bandito had scooped it up and carried it to safety.

The swallow had a family now but always made a home in the trees right by the camp.

Jason and Nigel loved to chase each other around, happy to have another companion that can keep up with the chase.

Tyler made sure Jason was running enough. Had taught him to run circles around the perimeter of camp and gave him meat treats as a reward.

When Jason wore himself out with doing laps around the camp he would slow down (so as to not knock Tyler down thankfully) and jump into Tyler’s arms to be swung around and hugged as Tyler gave him love.

Josh watched happily on those days at the joy Jason brought to Tyler’s life. Sometimes he wishes he had a pet. But he wishes he had one that would listen to him.

While Jason has learned to be a good protector of the camp, the Banditos have also learned more about his needs.

Jason seems to dislike the sunlight. He chooses to spend the days inside and roam at night. Josh just shrugged it off and assumed Jason was nocturnal.

Tyler, however, took it a step further. He and several Banditos had dug out storage rooms underground for their supplies so they could be kept safe. Tyler convinced the Banditos to help him build an extra one to convert it into what he called “the basement.”

It was in the basement that Tyler had found the perfect place to be alone and tap into his mind to create. And Jason had taken to it, enjoying the darkness the room provided during the day.

Tyler eventually moved Jason’s bed into the basement. There was one way in and out through a ladder and an old hatch that they covered with moss to hide its whereabouts. All the storage rooms were hidden this way and they were able to conserve more goods in the coolness of the earth.

Jason is extremely protective of this space. Josh has been in it only a handful of times and only ever when Jason is outside standing watch while Tyler brings him down to show something. Jason doesn’t like being disturbed when he’s down there alone. Josh respects that. Leaves him be.

But Tyler does like to show Josh what he’s working on, and when he brings Josh in, Jason leaves. It’s like he is protecting the space of creation from the outside when both of the boys are in it. Jason seems to know they need that peace of mind that the camp and they are being watched over while they’re both down there.

One day Josh catches Tyler hanging old fixtures on a staff at the entrance to the basement.

“What’s this?” Josh questions the odd choice of decoration.

It’s four lightbulbs. Things found in Trench. Tyler has hung the lightbulbs on chains and fixed them to the staff. One of the lightbulbs is broken.

“It’s important. They’ll shed light over the basement.” Tyler doesn’t even look up at Josh as he works.

Josh knows better than to question him, even if the lightbulbs aren’t connected to any power, three of them still shine brightly whenever Jason passes by them.

The shattered bulb never glows.

Josh doesn’t know how Tyler knows these things, but he knows they work. He knows they do what Tyler says they will. It’s enough.

Currently, Josh is sitting in the shade of a tent, a book in one hand and ball in the other. He throws the ball for Jason and pretends he’s reading when really he’s just watching Tyler train some of the new Banditos how to fight.

He watches one new recruit get cocky and try to take Tyler by surprise as he teaches them.

Josh hides his smirk behind his book as the Bandito is flat on his ass before he can even blink with Tyler’s knife presses into his back.

Jason trots up to Josh to return the ball. He tosses it as hard as he can, as far away from him as he can. It doesn’t really matter when Jason can go 0–60 in the 3 seconds. But Josh tries to make it fun for him.

It’s peaceful.

But peace in Trench never lasts long.

By sundown that day. The camp will be in chaos.

Josh had left Tyler for two minutes while they were eating dinner together by one of the smaller fires. When he returned the only thing left was Tyler’s footprints and a set of horses footprints leading into the forest behind the camp.

Josh and a few others search the woods for hours, calling out "Sahlo" over and over again and waiting for the returning call of "Folina" that never comes. 

An emergency meeting is called.

Josh is forced to stand on the burning car and deliver the news that Tyler is gone again. Jason stands at Josh’s feet on the ground by the car.

Josh sees Jason looking for Tyler in the crowd and his heart breaks more than it already has.

“But how did they get in, there’s only one entrance, and we were watching the whole time!” One Bandito exclaims, wringing her hands nervously.

“There must be other ways in after all. We’ve tracked the footsteps all the way to the forest where they disappear. We’ll organize a search party to look around the next few days to see if he’s wandering in the woods. If he doesn’t reappear by the end of the week, then we’ll be organizing a party to go to Dema to try and create a diversion to wake Tyler up. You know the drill for every one of us taken back. We always come for them.” Josh holds strong as he lays down instructions.

He knows by now that Tyler is strong. He knows Tyler will escape wherever he is. Still there’s a tremble in his hands and in his words as he speaks.

“Until then, you know what to do. Double bodies on watch jobs. No leaving camp. Everyone carries a weapon.” Josh recites out of memory.

“What does it matter if we can’t leave camp, if the Bishops can get us from inside anyway!” A Bandito calls angrily.

There’s a murmuring if agreement among the other Banditos.

“Because we can watch each other’s backs from the inside, now that we are on alert. But you’re welcome to try and fend for yourself on the outside.” Mark bites back. The murmuring stops.

Josh dismisses the crowd and they disperse off to their duties.

Brad comes over to put his hand on Josh’s shoulder.

“You okay man? I know you’ve gone though this before but I can’t see it ever getting any easier.” Brad’s pet Leo winds it’s way down his arm and rests his chin on Josh’s shoulder as well, like his owner, also trying to console Josh.

“I’m alright. I want him back but we have to stay clear headed. I can mourn when he’s home safe.” Josh admits and Brad claps his shoulder.

“I’m here if you need me.”

Josh nods in thanks before making his way to the tents. Jason comes to walk beside him and whines.

“I’m sorry buddy. Tyler isn’t going to be joining us tonight. You can go to sleep in the basement. He’ll be back before you know it.” Josh tried to stay positive.

Jason doesn’t go to the basement though. He paces in front of Josh’s tent for hours waiting for Tyler to come home.

Josh can hear Jason’s whining and crying. He’s confused and lost and sad and wondering where his owner is. Josh wants to cry at the sight but forces himself not to. He needs to be strong.

“Jason.” Josh calls him into his tent. Jason ignores him for a while, disliking that Josh is trying to tell him to do something. But when enough time has passed that Jason feels like he’s making the decision himself and not following Josh’s orders, he relents and steps into the tent.

He collapses into Josh’s arms and cries all night. Josh doesn’t sleep a wink. He holds Jason and rocks him and shushes him. Even tries singing Jason to sleep like Tyler does. It only makes Jason more upset.

Josh resigns to just whispering. “I’m sorry.” over and over again until they’re both so tired they pass out.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings- Please Read For Your Own Safety!  
Depictions of self destructive and unhealthy decisions. If you are sensitive to any actions that could be conceived as self harm, please be cautious.  
That being said, there is not self harm in this chapter but there are actions that could be taken as such.

4 days into Tyler’s disappearance, the camp is poised at the ready to go to into the city to find him.

It’s practice that if a lost Bandito doesn’t come back within 7 days, they’ve been officially named as taken.

It isn’t unheard of for Banditos to disappear for days at a time with no recollection of leaving. It’s hard to really know but they assume it’s a scare tactic from the Bishops, just to show the Banditos that they have the power over your mind.

They don’t.

The Banditos are usually found where they disappeared from in the first place, it can take a few hours or a few days for them to snap out of their stupor and realize what happened to them.

It’s the same answer every time.

“I just kept walking. No real idea where I was going except I knew it was the way to go. Never saw anybody.” They always say.

Everyone knows it must be wrong though because the Banditos always come with strange injuries, but otherwise mentally unharmed.

It’s when they are taken into the city that they are mentally scarred but physically unhurt. Josh hopes Tyler is wandering.

It’s frightening to see your friends minds forced so far into their own heads that they become catatonic. But the Banditos know it’s scarier to actually experience it.

Nobody has every come back after 7 days. That’s when it’s decided that they’ve just been taken back to the city, and that’s why they always wait a week before going back.

It drives Josh to the edge. He’s the type to want to jump and save anybody as soon as word comes that they’re gone. But this allows him to formulate a steady plan without the possibility of failure.

Josh is prepared for this. Tyler has disappeared before without getting dragged back to the city. It’s just a warning that the Bishops could if they wanted to.

He’s always come back. This time will be no different. Josh assures himself.

What is different, however, is Tyler’s pet.

Jason is moody and uncontrollable the entire week, snapping at anyone that tries to feed him.

Josh is exasperated at this point.

It hurts him to know that Jason is upset. He worries that Jason thinks Tyler left him on purpose and tries to explain to him what’s going on. Jason just growls constantly. He barely comes out of the basement for food and Josh is worried for him.

Today is time for his weekly bath.

Tyler takes great care in washing Jason once a week. He doesn’t necessarily get dirty, cats mostly clean themselves. Bathing is just Jason’s favorite pastime.

Nobody has ever bathed Jason except Tyler. As far as Josh knows, Jason won’t let anybody else bathe him. But Tyler isn’t here. Josh is determined to do so. He needs to run camp like usual even though Tyler is gone. Jason needs his bath.

Josh is kind of terrified as he climbs down into the basement to find the cheetah.

Jason doesn’t even acknowledge his existence. A bad sign. Jason hates being with somebody else in his basement.

“Jason, I’ve got a bath for you.” Josh says quietly, setting down the tub in the center of the room.

He’s laying down facing away from Josh, but picks up his head long enough to look at the tub over his shoulder before just laying his head back down.

“Oh come on Jason. You love baths. I know I’m not your usual washer but you could always even just splash around if you wanted to.” Josh encourages, sliding the tub closer.

Jason growls at his proximity and Josh takes a step back.

“I’ll even give you your favorite treat if you get in the tub.” Josh offers desperately.

The cheetah knocks the tub over with his tail.

The water spills and soaks into the floor.

“Jason! How could you, Tyler would be ashamed!” Josh chastises and apparently that’s the wrong thing for him to say because Jason is whipping around to face Josh at his full height and growling.

Josh just crosses his arms and stands his ground. Jason would never hurt him. He isn’t scared.

“I’m going to fill this up again and when I get back down here you had better be ready to take a bath.” Josh says sternly and rather childishly stomps up the stairs with the tub in hand.

When he comes back down the second time, Jason does look a little guilty to his credit.

Josh sets the tub down.

“Alright, hop in.”

Jason doesn’t move.

Josh sighs and moves behind Jason to pick him up and put him in the bath.

The bastard cat goes limp and deadweight, falling to the floor.

“That’s not gonna work.” Josh reprimands him and tries to pick him up. He’s heavy now, nearly as long as Josh is tall. But Josh is strong. Jason squirms out of his grip when Josh picks him up under his armpits and Josh is forced to let go.

Frustrated tears spring to Josh’s eyes. He hadn’t cried once this week since Tyler disappeared and he isn’t about to because of a stubborn oversized house cat.

“Jason please. Tyler would want you to carry on like normal while he was gone. I’m trying to respect his wishes!” Josh tries getting behind Jason to push the cheetah into the tub but the animal holds his ground and doesn’t budge.

Josh sits down on the ground heavily and puts his head in his hands.

“I’m failing him. I can’t even take care of his cat.” Josh’s voice cracks.

“I know I’m not Tyler, I know I could never be what he is to you but please work with me here. I’ve lost him, Jason I just want to do one thing right.” Josh’s shoulders shake with unshed tears.

Jason never gets in the bath.

He does let Josh lay his head on him and sob into his fur though, his tail comfortingly patting Josh.

Josh feels better crying down here, knowing nobody can see his exterior break.

Josh hopes Tyler is just wandering. He doesn’t think he could make it if Tyler was forced into forgetting him again.

He feels better after he cries until his stomach hurts. Less pent up and high strung. He leaves Jason alone in the basement and wipes his eyes as he re-emerges into the camp.

Sometimes you just have to embrace your losses.

Time is running out for Tyler to be found in the woods. They’ve been combing through the woods every day for hours with still no luck.

Josh goes to bed that night with a heavy heart. He does manage to sleep. But it’s filled with nightmares of Tyler being dragged through the sharp rocks by his neck by singed black hands.

He still thinks he’s in a nightmare when he’s awoken in a too dark tent. He can’t see anything, the air feels cloudy and he chokes on his breath as he fumbles to open his tent.

He sees Mark first, screaming that there’s a Bishop in the camp.

A strike of terror pierces his heart.

Mark’s screaming at him to move but the sound is muffled like Josh has cotton in his ears.

He takes in the chaos of his home.

All of the fires have been snuffed out and smoke pours through the camp. The only light comes from the moon.

Josh can see people are bloody and fighting against the unpredictable forms of Watchers.

The Bishop watches over the scene in the center of camp atop his horse.

Screams are coming from both Banditos and Watchers.

The Bishop turns to look at him. He’s paralyzed in place as he’s pinned with the Bishops gaze.

The robed figure steps off his horse and strides over to Josh.

He feels oddly calm and blinks as the Bishop raises his hands and places them on either side of Josh’s face, and runs his thumbs under Josh’s eyes. His eyes fall shut involuntarily as the Bishop swipes his thumbs over Josh’s eyelids as well before stepping back.

Josh’s eyes burn where the Bishop has touched him.

The Bishop turns to leave. He sees the Banditos have the upper hand against the Watchers that are screaming in pain or rage.

There’s rapid footsteps behind him.

In the blink of an eye and a yelp of pain he sees Jason jump and throttle the animal that was coming for Josh.

Jason saved him. He attacked the Tracker and shook it around like a toy, his jaw clamped around its neck.

He can’t tell what type of animal it was, reduced to a mess of fur and blood by Jason’s teeth.

Josh snaps out of it once the Bishops presence is far enough away from his and he grabs his knife, nodding to Jason in thanks.

He runs to help the other Banditos slit the Watcher’s throats, or helps hold the Watchers thrashing limbs down as others do it.

He hears more yelling and turns to see the Bishop back on his horse. There was a Bandito on the ground underneath the horse, they tried to slash at the horse’s ankles so the Bishop would fall.

Josh screams too late.

He closes his eyes and clamps his hands over his ears but he can still hear the sickening crunch as the horse stamps on the Banditos head.

When Josh looks up again he can see the Bishops retreating form on horseback, beginning to leave the camp.

He shakes his head and digs his fingernails into his palms as he closes his fists tightly.

Mark grabs him a pulls him to a group that needs help. He feels like he’s running on autopilot as he places his knee on a Watcher back and snaps its neck.

He tries not to take pleasure in the feeling.

How did a Bishop manage to sneak into camp with 20 Watchers? It’s pointless to wonder, the Bishops can always find them.

The last of the screaming finally stops at sunrise.

Josh’s hands shake as he lights the torches and drums on fire again. Nearly burns his hand as he drops a matchstick into the engine of the old car. It immediately catches fire like it had never gone out.

He can hear cries coming from the medical tent as he helps drag Watcher bodies away.

There’s caked blood under his fingernails and staining his clothes. He isn’t sure if it’s his friends blood or the enemies.

There was only one fatality. The Bandito under the horse. They bury his body in a nice space downstream. He will be the first one of them placed in the graveyard of the new camp. They’ve been in the new camp for nearly a year without needing to build one.

Josh carves the headstone. No one bothers him while he does this.

He knows the Banditos are staring at the marks around his eyes. He knows he hasn’t had a Bishop bless him with them in a while. He’s embarrassed that they’re there. His eyes feel rubbed raw.

He wishes they would stop staring. He let them happen. He was finding it hard to forgive himself that he froze when the Bishop came to him. He was supposed to be a leader.

“You are our leader, Josh.” Mark puts a hand on his shoulder as Josh fits the stone into the ground.

Josh didn’t realize he was talking aloud.

Mark stoops down and hands him a rag soaked in an herbal solution from the medical tent.

“You’re braver than all of us Josh. We’ll follow your lead no matter what.”

Josh accepts the rag and rubs his eyes gently with it. When he’s finished he looks down and sees the rag is stained with red streaks.

“Just throw it away. Stain s’not gonna come out.” Josh mumbles and hates the way his voice cracks.

He pulls his bandana tighter around his face.

He visits the sick tent and silently helps the medics tend to the wounds of his people. He’s assessing the damage.

Mostly the camp is fine. A few tents knocked over, blood stains that will have to be washed away. Ultimately the people are fine albeit terrified and mourning.

Josh counts his blessings but can’t find the words to encourage or console them. He doesn’t even have it in him to make a plan for retribution. He’s drained.

He feels broken. The Bishops can take everything from him whenever they please. Josh is always just playing catch up.

The worst part is, they can’t even retaliate.

Not in the way the Bishops do to them. The Banditos can cause a scene and rescue people, but they can’t instill fear and despair and horror in the Bishops like it’s done to them.

He feels his frustration building up when he comes to terms with the fact that the Banditos will always just have to take it. Take whatever the Bishops throw at them because they’ll never be able to return the favor. All they can do is move on and leave Trench to hopefully something better. They’ll never get closure. To move on without closure sounds impossible. Josh still wants to try despite his hopelessness. He’ll tear the city down stone by stone if that’s what it takes to dismantle the whole system.

Nigel the swallow swoops down to perch on his shoulder. Josh give a heavy sigh but lifts his hand to pet the little birds fluffy chest.

“Glad you’re safe little guy.”

The little bird flutters away and Josh watches the bird soar over the river and land in its nest in a tree.

Panic surges through Josh’s body for no reason. He suddenly feels wrong. He feels unclean. Dirty with not only blood but with his failures. He wants to rip his skin from his skeleton.

Fear shuts down his voice of reason his legs carry him all too easily towards the river bank. He doesn’t let himself think or feel before he’s jumping in with all his clothes on.

He doesn’t know why he does it. But it feels right.

He exhales all the air he can so he sinks to the bottom.

It’s perfect. The water is freezing since it’s winter and shocks his body. The darkness is comforting and it feels like his eyes are soothed. The water muffles any noise and his brain is relieved at the peace and quiet. His body is wrapped in the gently swirling water and he indulges in the weightless feeling after carrying his burdens on his shoulders for so long.

He wishes he could stay here forever. Floating in nothingness.

A hand splashes down from above the surface and disturbs his peace.

It snatches him and drags him to the surface and he’s thrown back into the too loud, too bright, too painful world above him.

Josh fights back and struggles to get back into the water.

A cheetah snags the back of his hood and he’s powerless to fight against it, behind him.

Jason drops him on the sharp rocks and snarls right in his face.

Josh drops his head down to the rocks below him in defeat.

“Josh!” Brad is calling his name and slapping his face none too gently.

Josh splutters out water that he didn’t realize he had breathed in.

“What were you thinking?” Brad sounds hysterical, and picks Josh up to cradle him against his chest.

Josh doesn’t respond.

Brad calms down and tells everyone he’s got in under control as he leads Josh back to his tent on shaking legs.

Josh refuses his own in favor of climbing into Tyler’s.

“You have to talk to me.” Brad keeps his voice low, tying up the tent behind him.

His bandana is ripped from around his face and Josh finally meets Brad’s eyes.

“If you’re hurting you come find us, we’ll always be here right beside you. Please don’t try to face it alone and end up-“

“Killing myself?” Josh finishes. He can see the way his words make Brad flinch.

“Wasn’t trying to end it. Just wanted to-“ Josh pauses as he thinks of any sane reason he would want to jump into the river. “Be whole again.” Josh finishes and starts tugging off his wet clothes so he won’t have to look Brad in the eyes.

“By, what? Baptizing yourself like the Bishops do to you in the city?” Brad’s voice is teetering in the edge of accusatory.

“Wasn’t thinking of it like that. Just wanted to, I don’t know, be clean.” Josh tried to shrug him off.

The Bishops baptized you every time you came back to the city. It was a painful process of submerging you and keeping you help under until right before you died.

Breathing in water was painful. And it hurt even more coming back up. The pain was supposed to be symbolic of their sins leaving their bodies as the Bishops had always told them.

“Josh-“

“I’m fine, Brad. It was a stupid decision, but I wasn’t trying to kill myself. Just an impulsive self destructive decision.” Josh felt like he didn’t even believe the words coming out of his own mouth.

Brad sighed.

Josh caught Brad’s arm before he left.

“Thanks for pulling me out.” Josh cast his eyes down on his lap.

“I’m telling Mark.” Josh heard him say as he stepped out of the tent.

Josh supposed he deserved that. He just needed to be alone for a while. He changed into a pair of Tyler’s clothes and tried to ignore the stabbing pain he felt when he could still smell Tyler on the clothes. He presses his face into Tyler’s pillow and breathed in deeply.

There were no more tears left in his body to cry out, but his body still shivered from the emotional turmoil his heart was dealing with.

A rustling sounded at the entrance of the tent.

“Go away, Mark.” Josh grumbled.

“Never.” Mark said.

“But I didn’t come for you. This has been following me around, take it.”

Josh looked to see Mark leading Jason inside the tent by his scruff. He didn’t say anything as the tent was tied back up and Josh and Jason were left alone.

He reached out to pet Jason’s still drying fur. At least he was washed if any blood and dirt from jumping into the river to get Josh.

“You saved me twice today. Thank you.”

Jason rested his chin on Josh’s thigh and whined.

“I wasn’t trying to kill myself.” Josh said aloud.

Jason moved closer to Josh anyway.

Josh absentmindedly traced one of Jason’s spots that was shaped like a heart.

“I wasn’t trying to kill myself, you know that? I just wanted some peace and quiet. It was wrong. I won’t do it again.” Josh apologized to the cat.

Jason only sighed heavily in return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anybody catch my reference to Josh’s read eye makeup? I’d like to think that, just how the bishop can make Tyler’s neck turn black, the bishop can also paint Josh’s eyes red. Two different forms of smearing. Maybe every bandito has their form of being smeared.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warnings-Please Read For Your Own Safety  
Mentions of nooses. Depictions of Mental Instability and Slight Psychosis.

They find him on the morning of the 7th day.

They were combing the woods one last time before they headed to the city that night.

It’s just Josh and a few others. Josh wishes he hadn’t been the one to find him, he hates what the Bishops do to Tyler, the way it makes him look. But he’s relieved that Tyler was just wandering and not captured and tortured in the stale concrete walls of the city.

They follow the path of the footsteps from when Tyler was lead out to the forest by the Bishop. It seemed like this time they dragged him by his feet. There were scrabbling hand marks where Tyler had dug his fingers into the dirt. He was found right out in the open forest at the end of the trail.

The sight was horrifying.

Tyler stood next to a large tree, his eyes cast to the sky above them.

When Josh comes close enough he sees that Tyler’s iris’ are a bright red.

Tyler is unmoving. So still that he doesn’t even look like he’s breathing.

Around Tyler’s neck there is a noose. It isn’t tight. It’s tied to the tree. It’s not hurting him. Just used to keep him from escaping. With him standing, the noose is loose around his neck, but if he were to get tired enough to pass out and fall, it would choke him.

Josh feels sick at the thought of the Bishops tying the noose around his neck and tethering it to tree trunk for kicks. Using his own words against him.

The Banditos race to cut open the knot. When they finally do, Tyler’s limp body slumps forward into Josh’s arms.

“Tyler.” Josh breathes, sitting back on his heels and picking Tyler’s head up.

Tyler’s eyes are unfocused and unblinking, but he’s awake.

Josh looks down and picks up Tyler’s hands where they lay unmoving on the ground beside him.

He unfurls Tyler’s fists.

In one hand Tyler is gripping two trinkets.

Two wooden statues.

One figure is a ballerina. Her body is painted over in black and white in the intricate design of a skeleton.

The second is a miniature statue of the one that sits in the courtyard and places of worship in Dema. The statue with its hands raised above its head in glorification to Vialism.

There’s a string tied around the statues ankles, stringing it up by its feet. The string connects to the ballerina figure where it wraps around her neck like a noose.

Josh slips the talismans out of Tyler’s hands and tucks them deep into his pocket. He makes sure the others don’t see them.

He unclasps Tyler’s other hand to reveal a dried yellow flower. It’s slightly crushed from where Tyler was gripping it too hard. Josh tucks it away safely too.

He lets one of the other Banditos pick Tyler up and carry him to camp.

The weight of the figures in Josh’s pocket is heavy on his heart.

Tyler looks gaunt. His eyes are surrounded by dark circles. He’s got a cut across the bridge of his nose. His bottom lip is split right down the middle. His knuckles are bruised.

The Banditos are silent on their trek back.

The first thing they do is set Tyler down to have his head shaved. His hair is matted and knotted with dirt and blood.

The Banditos dance and sing around the fire as Tyler’s hair falls away. They try to get him to wake up.

He remains unmoving.

“I got him from here.” Josh picks Tyler up after he’s done.

He catches Mark’s eye to silently convey that he’s taking Tyler.

Mark nods.

Josh whistles as he nears the foothills by the waterfall and Jason comes bounding towards him once he catches Tyler’s scent.

Jason stops short when Tyler doesn’t move. He sniffs Tyler’s hand where it hangs from his body as Josh carries him.

He whines loudly and grabs Tyler’s fingers in his mouth and pulls gently.

“I’m taking him to have a bath, will you come protect him?” Josh words it as a question so he hopes Jason will do it.

Jason’s ears perk up at the word “bath.”

He keeps Tyler’s fingers in his mouth but trots alongside Josh, like he’s holding Tyler’s hand as the three of them hike up to the hot springs.

When they reach the springs, Jason sits obediently and keeps watch. He licks Tyler’s cheek once before he starts circling the spring, daring anything to come close.

Josh strips Tyler out of his dirty clothes and removes his own before picking him up as gently as he can and placing him in the hot water. He sits him down and lets Tyler’s head rest against the rocks behind him.

When he steadies Tyler enough that he isn’t in danger a falling under the water Josh goes to work cleaning the grime from him.

He takes a rag and soap and starts with Tyler’s face and neck.

“You’re safe now.”

He wipes the dirt away to reveal four black stripes on Tyler’s neck. He has to scrub a little harder to get those off and whispers apologies as he does it.

“I’m sorry, I know I’m being a little rough.” Josh places his forehead against Tyler’s

He runs the rag over every inch of Tyler’s body making sure all the dirt is wiped away.

“I know you can hear me. You can come back now. They aren’t here anymore.” Josh tries to get Tyler out of his stupor but he remains motionless.

Josh carries on and starts washing what’s left of Tyler’s hair. The tiny stubble goes from coarse to velvety as he removes 6 days worth of sweat and grime.

“Jason will be happy to have you back.” Josh tries to make conversation to keep his own mind from going dark.

“He needs you to come back so he can have a bath too. He wouldn’t let me.” Josh lets a tiny smile through his words.

Tyler’s breathing is so shallow. Josh stops for a moment and rests his ear against Tyler’s slow beating heart.

“You’re in there. I can feel it. I can hear it. You’re alive, Tyler.”

Josh swallows the lump in his throat when Tyler doesn’t respond.

“Alright. Well don’t wake up while I’m shaving your face. I don’t want to cut you accidentally.” Josh keeps it light.

He knows when Tyler wakes up it’ll be violent and painful. The lost never realize where they are at first once they wake up. They thrash and kick and fight and scream like they’re still being dragged away by the Bishops.

Josh doesn’t want to be near Tyler’s neck with a knife when that happens.

Josh takes Tyler’s chin in his soapy hand and keeps his other hand steady as he drags it across Tyler’s scruff on his face.

“Always thought you looked good with some stubble, but I know you prefer a clean shave.” Josh teases.

He tilts Tyler’s chin minutely as he swipes the blade across his neck and over his jawbone.

“All finished.”

He places a kiss under Tyler’s ear.

After washing himself as quickly as he can he throws his fresh clothes on even though he’s still sopping wet and helps Tyler into his own.

Jason nudges Tyler with his head, trying to get him to pat his head.

His dejected whine hurts Josh when Tyler doesn’t even twitch in response.

He brings Tyler to the medical tent to be evaluated. He refuses to leave Tyler’s side this time, remembering the hurt in his voice when Josh wasn’t with him the last time he woke up after a close encounter.

The medics don’t have much to do except test his temperature and make sure none of his cuts are infected.

Mark comes and keeps him company as they wait all night for Tyler to wake up. Josh is grateful.

It happens slowly.

Tyler’s eyes begin to move and blink, but he still doesn’t move his body.

Mark and Josh don’t take their eyes off of him.

Near sundown, his breathing returns to normal. But he still doesn’t move. He lays on the cot, blinking occasionally, eyes darting around like he’s seeing things that aren’t really there. He doesn’t react to any noise or call of his name.

Josh must’ve fallen asleep in his chair because the next thing he knows he’s awoken to the sound of humming next to him.

He jerks up and looks over to Tyler’s cot.

Tyler is sat straight up, stiff as a board.

He isn’t humming so much, it sounds like he’s trying to speaks but his mouth is clamped shut of his own accord.

Josh slaps Mark awake as Tyler’s hums get louder and more panicky.

Mark jerks awake and Tyler jumps to a stand at the motion, just realizing that he isn’t alone.

There’s a moment where all three of them are dead silent. The world is silent around them. Not even a chirping bird or sway of wind.

Mark breaks the silent spell.

“Tyler?” He asks cautiously.

Tyler’s eyes go wide and he takes a sharp breath before he speaks.

“Folina.” Tyler says.

“Folina.” He repeats louder.

“Folina!” He yells.

Tyler starts screaming Folina over and over again, turning in circles and looking around the tent like he’s lost.

Josh stands to approach him, he can hear people waking up outside.

“Tyler, you’re safe, we can hear you.” Josh tries.

“He’s answering our call from when he first got taken!” Mark points out.

“Must’ve been the last thing he remembered before going out.” Mark goes to touch Tyler to try and stop his screaming.

“No don’t!” Josh doesn’t say it in time.

Tyler stops screaming and jerks away from Marks touch, his mouth sews shut again. There’s terror in his eyes. Josh realizes Tyler doesn’t recognize where he is.

“Tyler-“ Josh warns. He can see it in Tyler’s eyes that he’s about to run. Tyler is fast.

He’s right. Tyler jumps and manages to avoid both of them and sprints out of the tent. Both boys chase after him.

He can’t let Tyler go and get lost again. He hates himself as he does it because he knows it’s going to be painful for Tyler, but it’s better than the alternative of letting him go. Josh tackles Tyler in the center of camp.

Tyler screams behind his teeth and thrashes violently against Josh. He manages to kick Josh in the stomach and cries out angrily through his closed mouth.

Josh lets off of him as he sees a few Banditos poking their heads out of their tents at the commotion. He latches onto Tyler’s ankles instead to keep him from running.

He underestimates Tyler’s will to get away and with Tyler’s arms free he starts hitting and swiping at Josh.

“Tyler, stop, please!” Josh pleads with him. The younger one is surprisingly strong for being in the woods for almost a week and catches Josh’s face and body several times with well placed punches.

Josh wrestles with him, kicking up dust and rolling around to try and get him to stop. Tyler doesn’t stop yelling the entire time behind his closed lips.

Josh’s heart breaks knowing Tyler probably thinks he’s a Bishop or a Watcher or some sort of twisted vision.

Tyler manages to squirm out of Josh’s hold but Mark is there to stop him.

Mark sits heavily on Tyler’s legs and Josh is able to whip around and sit on Tyler’s back. He catches Tyler’s wrists to keep him from moving.

“I’m sorry, Tyler I’m so sorry.” He repeats as Tyler’s face is smashed into the grass underneath him.

When Tyler realizes he’s trapped he goes completely limp and whimpers.

Josh heaves a breath, worn out.

“Everything’s under control, he’s fine. Go back to sleep.” Josh’s voice is hoarse but biting as he orders the Banditos to stop staring and go away.

Mark and Josh keep Tyler down until they’re sure he isn’t going to try and break free again.

They both don’t let go of him the entire time they take him back to the medical tent just in case though.

He seems more awake when they sit him down again and the medics come flurrying inside to check on him.

He still averts their touch and they do their best to only touch him when necessary.

They shine a light in his eyes, his pupils dilate and shrink correctly but his iris’ are still burning red instead of warm brown.

Mark touches Josh’s arm reassuringly as they asses Tyler.

The medic snaps by Tyler’s ears and Tyler flinches harshly and slaps her arm away.

She sighs heavily.

“Maybe he’ll let you do it.” She says tiredly and motions for Josh to take his pulse.

Josh’s face and body still throbs were Tyler hit him.

“I’m not too sure.” Josh says but he tries anyway.

Against his better judgment he kneels in front of where Tyler is sitting.

He sits completely still again, eyes focused on the floor. He’s taught. Every muscle in his body is flexed and tightened.

“Tyler?” Josh asks kindly.

“I won’t touch you. But can you listen to what I tell you to do?”

Tyler’s red eyes flick up to Josh’s own briefly. He suppresses a shiver from being stared down with Tyler’s piercing red gaze even for just a brief moment.

“Focus on your toes. Can you uncurl them for me?”

Josh is close enough that he can see Tyler swallow and blink. He doesn’t uncurl his toes.

“Is something preventing you from moving?” Josh asks.

Tyler’s eyes dart over all the people in the room and back down to the floor.

They get the picture.

“We’ll be outside.” The two medics grab Mark to stand outside.

“Get Jason.” Josh tells Mark before he leaves. He can see Mark’s hesitation because they both know Jason is in the basement and will probably kill Mark if he’s disturbed but Mark nods anyway.

He turns back to Tyler. “I know you’re exhausted. You’ve been fighting so hard for days. Can you try one more time to fight back against what’s holding you? I’ll be right here the whole time to protect you.” Josh whispers.

Tyler is still for a moment and Josh thinks for sure that he’s retreated into his own head again, but then Tyler lets out a long breath through his nose and his toes uncurl. His whole body goes slack and he sits hunched over on his cot.

“There you go, you’re doing so well. I’ve got you.” Josh tries to soothe.

Tyler’s head snaps up and he tries to move away from Josh.

“No, I’m sorry I didn’t mean that I’ll touch you, just that I’m here to stop anything that tries.”

Tyler relaxes. Truly relaxes and his eyes close for the first time Josh has seen in almost two days.

Tyler lifts a trembling hand. It’s shaking so much it worries Josh. He resists the urge to steady his hand with his own.

Tyler makes a motion in front of his face like he’s pulling off a mask.

“Hm?” Josh prods gently.

Tyler does it again. And again. Until his arm drops back down to his side in exhaustion.

“Oh. Yeah, you were smeared, the marks aren’t there anymore, they’re all gone, would you like to see?”

Tyler shakes his head violently.

“Okay, okay, that’s fine. Can I touch you here?” Josh points to Tyler’s wrist.

Tyler hesitates and Josh opens his mouth to apologize but Tyler nods just barely.

“I won’t hurt you, I promise.” Josh presses his thumb to the inside of Tyler’s wrist and there’s an audible clack of Tyler’s teeth clenching so hard.

Josh pulls his hand away. He tries not to be hurt from Tyler being so terrified of him.

“You don’t have to.” Josh studies Tyler.

“Tyler, do you know who I am?” He asks.

Tyler meets his eyes and Josh stands his ground and stares back.

Tyler shakes his head.

Josh lets out a harsh breath and stands to exit the tent.

“I couldn’t do it.” He tells the medics. He doesn’t elaborate. “He’s all yours.” Josh calls behind him and makes his way to the basement to check on Mark’s progress.

“He’s with Brad.” Mark explains as Josh walks up to see the basement hatch open with no Jason.

“Close that.” Josh points to the hatch. “Don’t want anything getting out.”

Mark locks it and dusts off his hands. “How is he?”

“Fine.” Josh says curtly. 

Mark seems to understand he doesn’t want to talk about it.

Josh carries on to the center of camp but stops behind a tent when he catches the end of Brad’s sentence.

“This happens every time somebody comes back! What is wrong with you? Why did you just stand there and stare? I know we’ve gotten comfortable here but that can’t happen, get scared again and get your heads on right!”

Brad is reprimanding the Banditos.

Josh coughs pretending to be inconspicuous.

The talking stops and he hears them disperse.

Brad meets him behind the tent, Jason following behind him.

“Thank you.” Josh doesn’t need to clarify. “You’re right it doesn’t get any easier.” Josh swallows harshly as Jason sniffs his hand, catching Tyler’s scent.

“C’mon man lets take a walk.” Brad claps Josh on the shoulder. His snake, Leo winds it’s way around Jason and hitches a ride on him as the four of them make their way around the edge of camp.

Brad talks about everything and nothing to distract Josh. He doesn’t ask for Josh to respond to him, and Josh knows he has the best friends in the world.

They stop by the field of yellow flowers and Brad goes quiet when he sees the gears in Josh’s head turning.

Josh stoops down and plucks a daisy, petting the petals.

“What?” Brad asks.

“I’ve got an idea.”


	10. Chapter 10

Josh asks the medics to let Tyler rest in his own tent that night.

“What! No way he needs to be in the medical tent so we can help him when he snaps out of it!” One of them protests.

“I’ll be there to watch over him!”

“And have him accidentally knock you out if he looses it again? Absolutely not!” The medic crosses her arms.

Josh ends up getting his way.

“Stay, please?” He asks Jason to stand outside of the tent. “Protect us?”

Jason blessedly listens to him and lays down at the entrance of the tent, albeit a little grumpily from not getting to lay with Tyler.

“Thank you.” Josh pats his head and lays down on the opposite side of the tent from where Tyler lays obediently still. He knows he needs space right now. He’s happy enough that Tyler is safe, he can deal with this.

Tyler wakes up fully in the dead of night. Josh wasn’t sleeping, waiting for it to happen.

Tyler’s eyes go from half lidded to snapped awake and he scrambles to the back of the tent, his chest rising and falling rapidly, his pupils blown wide. Josh doesn’t try to restrain Tyler but holds his hands up.

“Tyler, it’s me.”

Tyler’s eyes are swirling mix of red and brown.

Josh moves slowly so as to not scare him.

He holds out the crumpled yellow flower from Tyler’s pocket, and a fresh new one beside it.

Tyler gasps and reaches greedily to take it.

His fingers barely brush the little petals.

Josh holds his breath.

“Josh?” Tyler asks tentatively.

Josh doesn’t move for fear Tyler is going to start hitting him again.

“Josh!” Tyler throws his arms around Josh’s neck and cries.

They’ve surely woke up several of their tent neighbors by now but Josh doesn’t care.

Tyler lets Josh drag them to the bedroll and slump down together. Josh shakes as he laughs out of joy.

He’s bruised and exhausted but Tyler is awake and holding onto him tighter than he’s ever felt.

“Tyler, Tyler, Tyler.” Josh keeps breathing his name over and over again and wraps his arms around the younger.

Tyler keeps whimpering and digs his fingers into Josh.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Tyler’s voice breaks.

“I know. It’s okay it’s just a few bruises. You’ve given me worse in sparing matches.”

Tyler lets out a sob mixed with a laugh at that.

“I heard you calling Sahlo. I wanted to call back but I couldn’t, they had me.” Tyler grips onto Josh.

“It’s okay, I know. We’re both safe now.”

Tyler only whimpers louder as Josh tucks his nose into Tyler’s neck.

“You alright to eat? You need nourishment you probably haven’t eaten or drank very much.” Josh scratches his fingers through Tyler’s short hair.

He wanted nothing more then to just hold him but Tyler’s health comes first.

Tyler nods but doesn’t stop touching him.

He lets Tyler position him how he pleases, pushing Josh to sit up against the bars that hold up the tent. Tyler lays with his back against Josh’s chest, his head propped up on Josh’s shoulder as he lifts the water canteen to his own mouth and drinks half of the entire gallon.

He passes it to Josh who drinks more respectively and watches as Tyler’s shaking fingers dig through the bag of food Josh brought into the tent.

Josh fills him in on what he missed as Tyler munches.

“Don’t eat to much too quickly I don’t want you getting sick.”

Tyler huffs but slows down as he eats.

“The Bishops found the camp. Tried to scare us into running back to them.”

“So, I’m guessing this means we won’t go on a raid this month.” Tyler says with his mouth full.

Josh chuckles unbelievably.

“You just got back and you still wanna go there and rescue people?”

Tyler shrugs.

Josh shakes his head at Tyler’s courage.

“I could hear the echos of the music in the forest. It sounded all distorted under the Bishops spell but I could recognize it. Helped me know which way was up.” Tyler says.

“Could feel your drumbeat in my feet and in my head, like ghost vibrations from performing with you so often.” Tyler smiles a bit.

Josh feels something fluttery go through his stomach.

“I’ll play louder next time.” Josh jokes halfheartedly.

Tyler is the one to shake his head this time.

“These were in your hand when we found you. I’m guessing they’re significant?” Josh reaches to find the wooden statues in his bag.

Tyler grunts in disapproval at Josh’s moving around.

Josh realizes belatedly how touch starved Tyler must be. He’s a very touchy person with the people he trusts.

He holds the figures by the string in front of Tyler’s eyes.

Tyler reaches up to take them from Josh and nods slowly.

“They were protecting me. Nobody saw them except you right?” Josh shakes his head, still a little confused. But Tyler knows more than he should about surviving Trench.

“Thank you for keeping them safe.” Tyler stashes them back into Josh’s bag.

He sits up and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and pulls Josh down to lay with him.

“Hold me?” Tyler says it so quietly Josh isn’t sure if he actually heard it.

But Tyler snuffles into Josh’s shirt as the starts to really cry.

They can talk later.

Josh takes pity on him and lays Tyler down on his back so he can hover over him.

Josh presses a kiss to the cut on Tyler’s nose, cradles his face in his hands as he kisses Tyler’s tears on his cheeks, and kisses the split in Tyler’s lip.

“Your eye is bloody.” Josh states running his thumb just under Tyler’s long bottom eyelashes.

The blood vessels in his left eye had burst filling the white in with red, in contrast to his now brown iris’.

“It’s from screaming too hard.” Tyler confesses.

Josh takes in a shuddery breath.

Tyler is vulnerable and raw and open which comes rarely these days. He’s bad at accepting affection, physical and emotional.

“Can I touch you?” Josh repeats his question from earlier.

“Please.” Tyler says brokenly.

Josh lifts his shirt up and presses warm kisses to every bump, bruise and scratch he sees. Lets his hands wander and press and squeeze over Tyler’s body wherever he can reach.

He puts a delicate kiss in the crook of Tyler’s elbow and another on the inside of his wrist.

Tyler lets out a harsh sob.

His palms are scrapped from scrambling to hold onto the ground as he was dragged through the forest by the Bishop. Josh nuzzles into his open hand.

He kisses over every one of his black and blue knuckles, wraps them as softly as he can in tape.

Tyler still winces in pain.

Josh lets his hand rest on Tyler’s neck, just to feel the blood rushing under his fingers. Lets his thumb fall into the little dip in Tyler’s neck under his adam’s apple, just above where his collarbones connect.

He applies the gentlest pressure with just his thumb to feel how Tyler’s throat constricts every time he tries to swallow down his own tears.

He fits his fingers into the slats between Tyler’s ribs and presses barely, indulging in the feeling of Tyler’s chest expanding and decompressing with each heaving breath as he cries.

Josh thinks he’s cried all he can this week because no tears ever come to his eyes, but he can’t keep his hands off Tyler like he can’t believe they are really back together.

Tyler catches Josh’s wrist in his hand and brings it over his chest. He presses Josh’s palm to his heart and grips Josh’s wrist tightly to keep him from moving.

“You feel it?”

Josh nods. Doesn’t dare say a word.

“Am I alive, Josh?”

Josh focuses on feeling Tyler’s heartbeat through his chest.

Hesitantly, Josh picks up Tyler’s bony wrist and places Tyler’s freezing hand on his own heart.

“You feel it?” he echos Tyler’s words.

Tyler frowns and shakes his head minutely.

Josh takes Tyler’s hand away and cups his own hands around it to warm it up. Brings it to his mouth to breath hot air over his cold digits and presses a kiss to each pad of his finger, then brings Tyler’s hand under his shirt this time and presses it to his heart.

Tyler takes in a shuddery breath and digs his fingers in a little over Josh’s heart.

“Do you feel mine?”

Tyler’s eyes clench shut and he nods.

“You’re alive, Tyler. I’m alive.”

A crackling noise fills the tent as Josh lights a candle so he can see what he’s doing. Tyler flinches as the match is struck.

Josh whispers an apology into Tyler’s ear.

Tyler’s frown deepens and his lip quivers as more tears slip out and run down to his ears.

Josh leans down and imprints words of comfort and love into Tyler’s skin all over his body in every place he can reach.

“I’ve got you.” he whispers into Tyler’s collarbones.

“Trust in me to take care of you.” Josh kisses Tyler’s left then right temple and then places a final kiss in the center of his forehead. The three kisses are an action of romantic love in Trench. Tyler used to never let him kiss him like that. He was too scared of getting attached and then getting taken away.

Josh hopes Tyler will let him kiss him like that from now on.

There are webs of bruising over the pointy parts of Tyler’s body, like he had been thrown down over and over again.  
The bruises look like spider veins, lightening strikes of purple and blue shattering the normally tan expanse of his skin.

Josh lets his pointer finger trace the lines slowly and carefully, just barely grazing.

Tyler whimpers at how gentle Josh is being in taking care of him.

He slides his hands down and rubs his thumbs over Tyler’s sharp hipbones and Tyler starts to tremble.

“You’re okay.”

Tyler nods and fists his hands in the blankets underneath him.

Josh moves down further and kisses over the tattoo of his own name on Tyler’s thigh.

Skips over and presses his lips to Tyler’s painfully skinned knees.

Catches his twitching thighs in his hands and rubs them up and down, bringing warmth to Tyler’s shivering body.

He lets Josh flip him into his stomach and remove his shirt entirely.

There’s a pause as Josh takes in the sight.

Tyler’s face is turned to the side on the pillow and he reaches up to rub his tears away.

The skin of Tyler’s back is shredded and angry looking from being dragged through the sharp rocks of Trench. The shallower cuts are starting to scab over but a week in the forest doesn’t do good for wounds.

Josh leans over to grab pain relieving salve from his pack.

“Can I?” He asks Tyler.

“From here.” Tyler responds grabbing Josh’s knee to stop him from climbing on top of him.

Josh understand Tyler doesn’t want to feel trapped as he does it and kneels by Tyler’s side instead.

He starts to apply the salve and Tyler starts whimpering again. This time because of the physical pain instead of emotional.

Josh sees Tyler’s fingers curl and his teeth gnash.

“I don’t have to-“

“No please. Want you to.” Tyler latches onto Josh’s knee tighter, like he would stop.

Josh keeps his touch feather light as he spreads the medicine into Tyler’s back.

Tears squeeze out of Tyler’s scrunched eyes.

Josh works as quickly as he can, wanting Tyler to stop crying.

He swoops down and presses another kiss to the back of Tyler’s neck. He can’t help himself.

They finally settle to rest.

He lets Josh hold him for the remainder of the night. Tyler falls into a deep sleep but Josh doesn’t think he even blinked the entire night. Too focused on analyzing Tyler’s face so he never forgets how peaceful he looks when he sleeps.

Tyler sleeps through the night and most of the next day too. Josh stays with him the entire time.

When it starts rain, Josh lets Jason into the tent.

The cheetah had stood guard outside of their tent all night, he deserved some rest too.

“Just this once.” Josh warns Jason and lets him climb onto the bedroll next to Tyler.

Jason begins to purr loudly and try to weasel his way under the blankets.

Josh shushes Jason’s but it’s too late.

Tyler’s eyes blink awake and he’s cuddling into Jason’s fur.

“Missed you too.” Tyler’s voice is rough.

Josh and Tyler’s eyes meet and Tyler looks guilty.

He reaches up and barely brushes his fingers over Josh’s cheek and Josh winces in pain before he even knows he’s hurt.

Tyler leans up to press an apologetic kiss to the purple-red bruise that had bloomed high on Josh’s cheekbone from where Tyler had hit him.

Josh just turns his head into Tyler’s now warm palm and smiles gently.

“Good morning you two.” Tyler smiles.

Jason clambers into Tyler’s lap.

Josh goes to remove the beast from squishing him but Tyler is in a good mood.

Tyler takes Jason’s furry face in his hands and turns him to look him in the eyes.

“Heard you weren’t very good for daddy.” Tyler scolds Jason and Josh goes bright red at the endearment. Tyler is too good at making Josh flustered.

“No, he was. He saved me twice. I’d be dead without him. He just doesn’t like strangers giving him baths.”

Tyler gives him a look that says “we’ll talk about that later” but continues on without questioning it.

“Stranger? Jason is that how you treat my partner?”

Jason bristles at Tyler’s scolding.

“I guess I’ll just have to make him permanently mine and then you’ll have no choice but to respect him.” Tyler sits up slowly, his aching joints stopping him from moving too quickly. He rubs his eyes with the back of his hand.

“You what?” Josh squeaks but then slaps a hand over his mouth in embarrassment.

“What? You already gave me a ring.” Tyler points out and digs around to find and open his journal where the flower ring Josh had made him all those months ago was safely dried and pressed.

“Thought I’d return the favor. Was working up the courage before I got taken. I better ask you now before I lose my nerve or worse- get grabbed again.”

Tyler digs through his bags and Josh is frozen in his seat. Tyler isn’t really going to-

He brings out a wooden box and places it in Josh’s hands.

“Made it myself.” Tyler worms is way into Josh’s lap to watch him open it.

It was a simple metal band. They didn’t have the tools to make anything fancy, but Josh didn’t care it was perfect.

“Earth to Josh, you gonna tie yourself to me or what?” Tyler pokes Josh’s cheek.

Josh answers him with a soft kiss. “I have something for you to.” Josh leans around Tyler to rifle through his pack.

“Close you eyes.” he says quietly. Tyler obediently lets his eyes fall shut and Josh fits his gift over Tyler’s head.

He reaches up in confusion to feel the gift on his head and gasps, eyes snapping open and taking it off his head again.

”Josh my-“ Tyler exclaims, feeling the soft fabric between his fingers. It’s a new red beanie, woven intricately and tightly.

“I also made that myself.” Josh states smugly.

Tyler smiles so wide, the spilt in his lip reopens.

“Thank you.” Tyler whispers, snugly securing the hat on his head and in doing so, feeling more secure in his place.

Jason gives a yawn.

Josh scowls at his disinterest.

”You’re lucky I didn’t make the hat out of your fur.” Josh threatens the cat. Jason and Tyler both snort at him.

Josh is careful not to touch any of the cuts on Tyler’s back as he kisses him until he feels light headed. Doesn’t even care that he can taste the blood from Tyler’s lip.

They separate and Tyler takes in the dreamy look Josh on his face and suddenly feels a pang of nervousness go through him.

“You know I get lost a lot. In my mind and in Trench. You know us being together isn’t easy.”

Josh barely lets him finish his sentence.

“That doesn’t matter. I’d go to the ends of Trench and back for you as many times it takes for us to find what’s beyond together someday. You aren’t a burden. You’re a gift. To me and this world.”

Tyler cries again.

They go out and make their rounds through the camp together with a new promise between them. 

They’ll continue to rescue people from the city.

Tyler will bow to the night again.

They’ll continue to fight for the right to be alive in Trench.

Tyler will fall prey to Vialism again.

They’ll survive for each other and themselves.

But that night, in the early hours just before dawn, Tyler will wake up alone in their tent. Josh won’t be in his own tent. He won’t be in the basement or even in the camp at all.

“Josh?” Tyler crawls out of their tent and calls for him.

There won’t be an answer. Not until Tyler himself gets taken back to the city and he meets a curly headed boy with brown eyes kneeling before the bishops in worship. They won’t recognize each other. Not for a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ending has been edited because I was uphappy with it. I like this more ambiguous ending better. Leave a kudos or comment if you are also trash for gentle Trench fics.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short bonus epilogue chapter because I just can't help myself. Enjoy.

Tyler bounces back incredibly fast. He is more than eager to get back to the city to rescue people after he is informed of the Bishops invasion of their camp while he was gone. 

Like Josh, he knows they can't get back at the Bishops like they really want to, but he still likes to try.

Josh finally relents and they go on a simple supply run in the city a few weeks after Tyler recovers.

He was a little more protective and clingy over Tyler than he normally was on a raid this time around but who could blame him?

Josh sticks with Tyler the entire time as they raid the supply warehouse, and even follows him next door to the animal cages. 

He knows Tyler goes every time but has never been inside the animal warehouse himself.

He does kind of regret not doing it sooner when he sees the sad state of the animals inside. He and Tyler wrench the cages open together and it goes twice as quickly as usual. 

Tyler makes the mental note to ask Josh to help him every time from now on.

Once the cages are all opened, they make their way to leave, but Josh stops suddenly and gasps in front of a cage they missed. Tyler smacks into him from his sudden stop.

"Tyler! Look!" Josh exclaims in worry.

There's a tiny furry golden animal in the center of the cell, that is almost comically large for how tiny it is. If it really wanted to it could probably just walk through the bars.

"Is that a hamster?" Tyler whispers his question.

Josh smashes his face in between the bars, rattling them to find it was locked. "No, dude I think its a puppy!"

He slides to the ground and reaches through the slats as far as he can and is blessedly able to scoop up the tiny animal with one hand and pull it through the bars.

It's barely bigger than Josh's hand.

"Must've been born like an hour ago." Tyler says incredulously.

That looks almost right. The puppies eyes aren't even open.

Josh tucks it to his chest ever so gently and motions for the two of them to get out of there.

The mission goes off without a hitch. Almost.

They make it out of the city completely and are trudging through Trench. 

Josh hands the puppy to Tyler to look at while he adjusts his bags on his shoulders. That's when the warning call is heard.

The Banditos split off into ten different directions. Tyler loses Josh in his haste.

They all hide in crevices in the cliffs as best they can. He realizes he's still holding Josh's puppy and silently prays the thing doesn't start crying.

His blood runs cold and he holds his breath as a Bishop comes cantering down the center of Trench where all of the Banditos just were.

Tyler scrambles further back into the cave and runs through it. It looks like the Banditos will all be taken different routes back to camp to avoid the Bishop.

Tyler hopes Josh is safe as he runs.

He is one of the first ones to make it back to camp and meets Mark at the perimeter.

"What happened?" Mark doesn't bother with anything else. He knows somethings wrong when Tyler arrives back alone.

"Ambush. A Bishop came right down the river. We all split up."

"Fuck." Mark runs a worried hand down his face. He sees the animal in Tyler's hand. "Not another one." He starts to scold Tyler.

"It's not mine. Josh saved this one."

Mark looks like he doesn't believe Tyler but they are interrupted by Jason running at them at full speed.

"Jason, no!" Tyler yells. Jason screeches to a halt just before he would usually launch into Tyler's arms after a raid.

He kneels down and sets the puppy in the grass gently before opening his arms for Jason to cuddle into.

The cheetah gives him a disgusting lick up the side of his face and purrs loudly.

"I'll go tell the rest of camp to be on alert." Mark grumbles.

Tyler doesn't acknowledge him. 

Jason's attention is pulled to the tiny puppy when it gives a small whine. The cat leans down and sniffs the puppy before scrunching it's nose in distaste.

"Jason." Tyler warns him. The puppy is the perfect bite sized meat treat for Jason and he thinks Josh would actually skin the cat if he took a nibble out of his pet.

Thankfully, Jason just sticks his tongue out and licks over the poor puppy. His tongue is so big Tyler is sure for a moment that Jason was just going to swallow him whole. But Jason just cleans the puppy up with his tongue, albeit a little roughly, and Tyler let's out a sigh of relief.

"Is your cat eating my fucking dog?" A voice calls from behind him.

Tyler gasps and whirls around to see Josh coming up the hill. 

Josh throws his bags down and runs to meet Tyler in the middle.

Tyler wraps his arms around Josh and kisses his left, then right temple, then seals the action with a kiss to the center of his forehead. Josh laughs, out of breath. Tyler brings Josh in to kiss him on the mouth, knowing nobody is around to watch them. 

Josh goes along with it, but Tyler can feel him smiling through it.

"Is your cat eating my fucking dog?" Josh mumbles into the kiss and it gets Tyler to bark out a laugh and they pull away from each other.

"No!" Tyler shouts with a laugh. 

Jason looks up at the outburst and picks up the puppy in his mouth by the scruff of its neck.

"I think Jason likes it." 

Josh kneels down to accept the puppy from Jason's mouth. 

"It is really cute." Tyler relents, cringing a bit at the puppy's wet fur from Jason's grooming.

"Tyler! Josh! The others are back!" Mark calls to them from camp. They shoulder their bags and the go to rejoin the rest. Normally they would perform after a successful mission but Josh has something more important he needs to take care of. The camp can wait.

Josh gets his hands on a canteen of milk and Tyler and Jason join him in their tent to fawn over the new pet.

The puppy drinks it's fill and promptly passes right back out, snuggly fitted into Josh's craddled arms.

"I always wanted a pet of my own." Josh looks down at the animal adoringly. "He's perfect."

Tyler already wants to profess his undying thanks to the animal for hopefully one day becoming a supportive friend. He's already made Josh so happy.

"His name is Jim. He and Jason are gonna be best friends." Josh states with no room for reasoning. Realistically, cats and dogs aren't supposed to get along. But Jason isn't exactly a normal cat. 

The cheetah rests his chin on Josh's thigh and his eyes never leave the sleeping puppy. He's enraptured.

Tyler kind of is too.

"Jim is great name. He'll be great. Another wonderful addition to the Banditos." Tyler states fondly.

Jim does grow up to be very supportive and caring. He's more warm to the other Banditos, letting anyone and everyone give him pats. He retrieves Josh's drumsticks and paroles camp with Jason. He calms Josh down in ways Tyler could've never imagined. 

Their family is certainly made up of strange creatures but it works. They're happy. It's good.


End file.
